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Flower,  Fruit,  and  Thorn 
Pieces 

OR  THE 

MARRIED  LIFE,  DEATH,  AND  WEDDING 

OF 

THE  ADVOCATE  OF  THE  POOR, 

FIRMIAN  STANISLAUS  SIEBENKÄS. 
BY 

JEAN  PAUL  FRIEDRICH  RICHTER. 

TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN 

*      By  EDWARD  HENRY  NOEL 

With  a  Memoir  of  the  Author, 
By  THOMAS  CARLYLE. 

In  Two  Volumes. 
II. 


3? 


BOSTON: 
TICKNOR    AND  FIELDS. 
1  8  6  3. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1863,  by 
TICKNOR   AND  FIELDS, 
the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


University  Press: 
Welch,   Bigelow,  and  Company, 
Cambridge. 


Contents  of  Vol.  ii 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGB 

Potato-War  with  Women,  and  with  Men.  —  The  Decem- 
ber Walk.  —  Tinder  of  Jealousy.  —  War  of  Succession 
about  the  striped  calico.  —  quarrel  with  stiefel. 

—  The  Sorrowful  Evening  Music     .      .      .      ,      .  1 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Solitary  New-Year's  Day.  —  The  Learned  Scha- 
laster.  —  Wooden  Leg  of  Appeal.  —  Post  in  the  Room. 

—  The  11th  February,  and  Birth-Day  1786    ...  52 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Leibgeber's  Letter  upon  Fame.  —  Firmian's  Evening 
Chronicle        .      .      .  80 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Flight  out  of  Egypt.  —  The  Glory  of  Travelling.  — 
The  Unknown.  —  Baireuth.  —  Baptism  in  the  Storm.  — 
Natalie  and  Hermitage.  —  The  most  important  Con- 
versation in  this  Book.  —  The  Evening  of  Friendship  94 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  Human  Clock. —  The  Refusal.  —  The  Venner  .      .  134 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Dismissal  of  a  Lover. — Fantaisie. — The  Child  with 
the  Nosegay.  —  The  Eden  of  Night,  and  the  Angel 
at  the  Gate  of  Paradise  149 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Rosa  von  Meyern.  —  After-Tones  and  After-Pains  of 
the  Loveliest  Night.  —  Letters  of  Natalie  and  Fir- 
mian.  —  Leibgeber' s  Table-Talk  171 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Departure.  —  Pleasures  of  Travel.  —  Arrival       .      .  194 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Butterfly  Rosa  in  the  Character  of  Mining-Grub. 
—  Thorn-Crowns  and  Thistle-Heads  of  Jealousy  .      .  203 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
After-Summer  of  Marriage.  —  Preparations  for  Dying  210 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  Ghost.  —  Going  Home  of  the  Storms  in  August,  or  the 
Last  Quarrel.  —  Clothes  of  the  Children  of  Israel. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Apoplectic  Stroke.  —  The  Upper  Board  of  Health. 
—  The  Public  Notary.  —  The  Will.  —  The  Knight's- 
Leap.  —  The  Preacher  Reuel.  —  The  Second  Stroke  . 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Dr.  Oelhafen  and  the  Medical  Ciiaussure.  —  Mourning 
Administration.  —  The  Saving  Death's-Head.  —  Fred- 
erick II.  and  Funereal  Elegy  264 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

journev  through  fantaisie  —  reunion  upon  the  blnd- 
locher  Mountain.  —  Berneck.  —  Man-doubling.  —  Ge- 
frees.  —  Exchange  of  Clothes.  —  Münchberg.  —  Pfeif- 
stück. —  Hof.  —  The  Stone  of  Gladness,  and  Double 
Parting  in  Topen  278 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Days  at  Vaduz.  —  Natalie's  Letter.  —  A  New-Year's 
Wish.  —  Wilderness  of  Destiny  and  of  the  Heart    .  302 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

News  from  Kuhschnappel.  —  Anticlimax  of  Girls. — 
Opening  of  the  Seventh  Seal  316 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  Journey  —  The  Churchyard.  —  The  Ghost.  —  The 
End  of  the  Misery,  and  of  the  Book     ....  329 


Flower,  Fruit,  and  Thorn 
Pieces. 


chapter  IX. 

Potato-War  with  Women,  and  with  Men.  —  The  December 
Walk.  —  Tinder  of  Jealousy.  —  War  of  Succession  about 
the  Striped  Calico.  —  Quarrel  with  Stiefel.  —  The  Sor- 
rowful Evening  Music. 

SHOULD  like  to  make  a  short  digression, 
but  I  have  not  the  courage.  For  there 
are  few  readers  now-a-days  who  do  not  un- 
derstand everything,  —  at  least,  among  the 
young  and  noble,  —  and  these  exact  of  their  favorite 
authors  (not  that  I  take  it  ill  in  them)  that  they  shall 
know  more  than  themselves,  which  is  a  sheer  impossi- 
bility. By  means  of  the  English  machinery  of  encyclo- 
paedias, encyclopedic  dictionaries,  extracts  from  the  lexicon 
of  conversation,  general  dictionaries  of  all  the  sciences 
by  Ersch  and  Gruber,  a  young  man  transforms  himself 
in  a  few  months  —  only  using  the  days,  too,  and  not  the 
nights,  which  are  quite  superfluous  —  into  a  whole  col- 
lege-senate full  of  faculties,  which  he  represents  in  his 

VOL.  II.  1  A 


2 


FLOWER,  FRUIT,   AND  THORN  PIECES. 


single  person,  and  to  whom,  in  some  sort,  he  himself 
^jands  in  the  relation  of  pupil. 

I  have  never  seen  any  wonder  equal  to  such  a  young 
man,  unless  it  be  the  man  I  heard  in  the  harmony  of 
Baireuth,  who  represented  in  his  own  person  a  whole 
"  Academie  royale  de  Musique"  a  whole  orchestra,  by 
carrying  and  playing  all  the  instruments  on  his  own 
body.  This  Panharmonist  blew  before  us,  partial  har- 
monists, a  bugle,  which  he  held  beneath  the  right  arm  ; 
with  the  latter  he  scraped  a  fiddle,  which  was  held  be- 
neath the  left ;  and  with  his  left  arm  again  he  struck, 
at  the  proper  moment,  a  drum,  which  he  carried  on 
his  back.  On  his  head  he  wore  a  cap  with  bells,  which 
he  easily  shook,  like  a  janizary;  and  he  had  cymbals 
buckled  on  both  his  ankles,  which  he  struck  together  pow- 
erfully with  his  legs.  Thus,  from  toe  to  toe,  the  whole 
man  was  one  long  sound,  so  that  I  am  tempted  to  com- 
pare this  simile-man  in  turn  to  something  else,  —  to  a 
prince,  who  represents  in  his  own  person  all  the  instru- 
ments of  the  state,  all  the  state-members,  and  all  its  rep- 
resentatives. 

Now,  in  presence  of  such  inhabitants  of  chief  towns, 
and  readers  who,  as  all-knowers,  resemble  such  all- 
players,  how  is  a  poor  devil  like  me,  who,  to  say  the 
best  of  myself,  am  only  a  Heidelberg  professor  of  a  few 
arts,  and  doctor  of  some  philosophy,  to  take  courage  to 
make  clever  and  happy  digressions  ?  It  is  much  safer 
to  continue  my  story. 

We  find  the  Advocate  Siebenkäs  once  more  full  of 
hopes,  but  with  fruitless  blossoms.  He  had  indulged 
the  hope,  that  after  the  royal  shot  he  would  enjoy  at 
least  as  many  happy  days  as  the  money  lasted,  namely, 


CHAPTER  IX. 


3 


fourteen ;  but  the  mourning-black,  which  is  now  the 
unifbfm  of  travellers,  was  also  to  be  his  on  his  night- 
journey,  —  this  voyage  pittoresque  for  poets.  Marmots 
and  squirrels,  but  not  men,  know  how  to  stop  up  the 
hole  in  their  dwelling  that  stands  opposed  to  the  coming 
weather,  at  the  right  moment.  Firmian  thought  that,  if 
the  hole  in  his  purse  were  mended,  nothing  more  would 
be  wanted.  Alas  !  he  now  lost  something  better  than 
money,  —  love.  His  good  Lenette  retreated  every  day 
further  from  his  heart,  and  he  from  hers. 

Her  concealment  of  the  garland  returned  by  Rosa 
collected  sand  round  it  in  his  bosom,  as  is  always  the 
case  when  any  extraneous  substance  lodges  in  any  vessel 
of  the  body ;  but  that  was  a  trifle ;  for 

She  swept,  scrubbed,  and  scoured,  in  the  morning,  let 
him  whistle  as  he  pleased. 

She  despatched  all  dissolutions  of  the  diet  and  other 
decrees  to  the  errand-girl  in  several  duplicates  and  revised 
copies,  let  him  protest  as  much  as  he  pleased. 

She  asked  him  several  times  about  the  same  thing, 
indifferent  as  to  whether  he  bawled  out  beforehand  like 
a  market-crier,  or  swore  afterwards  like  one  of  the  lat- 
ter's  customers  ;  she  still  continued  to  say,  "  It  has  struck 
four  quarters  to  four  "  ;  and  after  he  had  taken  the  great- 
est pains  to  prove  that  Augsburg  was  not  situated  in 
the  island  of  Cyprus,  she  still  always  returned  him  the 
well-grounded  answer :  — 

"  Neither  is  it  situated  in  Romania,  nor  in  Bulgaria, 
nor  in  the  principality  of  Jauer  ;  nor  near  Vaduz,  nor  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Husten,"  —  two  very  insignificant 
towns. 

He  could  never  bring  her  to  agree  with  him  openly, 


FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


when  he  quite  unconditionally  asserted,  "It  lies  with 
the  Devil  in  Swabia ! "  She  would  only  granPthus 
much,  that  it  lay  somewhere  between  Franconia,  Bavaria, 
and  Switzerland,  and  to  the  bookbinder's  wife  alone  she 
acknowledged  that  it  was  situated  in  Swabia. 

Such  loads  and  overloads  could,  however,  be  borne 
tolerably  well  by  a  soul  which  fortified  itself  by  the 
example  of  great  sufferers,  —  by  the  example  of  a  Ly- 
curgus,  who  patiently  let  himself  be  deprived  of  an  eye 
by  Alcander ;  or  by  that  of  an  Epictetus,  who  endured 
the  loss  of  a  leg  from  his  master.  And  I  have  -already 
mentioned  all  these  ironmoulds  of  Lenette  in  former 
chapters;  but  I  have  now  to  speak  of  new  faults,  and 
I  leave  it  to  impartial  husbands  to  declare,  whether  or 
not  they  belong  to  the  failings  which  a  husband  can  and 
ought  to  tolerate. 

In  the  first  place,  Lenette  washed  her  hands  at  least 
forty  times  a  day.  Whatever  she  touched,  she  must 
needs  immediately  undergo  this  holy  re-baptism.  Like 
a  Jew,  she  was  made  unclean  by  everything  around  her, 
and  she  would  have  imitated  rather  than  admired  the 
imprisoned  Rabbi  Akiba,  who  once,  when  he  was  in  the 
greatest  distress  for  water  and  afflicted  with  the  most 
terrible  thirst,  preferred  using  the  little  he  obtained  for 
washing  rather  than  for  drinking. 

"  She  ought  to  be  clean,"  said  Siebenkäs,  "  and 
cleaner  than  myself ;  but  there  is  a  measure  in  all  things. 
Why  does  she  not  wipe  herself  with  a  towel  whenever 
another  person's  breath  has  passed  over  her?  Why 
does  she  not  wash  her  lips  with  soap  every  time  a  fly 
and  something  more  has  settled  upon  them  ?  Has  she 
not  turned  our  room  into  an  English  man-of-war,  which 


CHAPTER  IX. 


5 


is  daily  washed  all  over,  outside  and  inside ;  and  have  I 
not  Tooked  on  at  the  scouring  as  peaceably  as  any  one 
upon  deck  ?  " 

If  ever  a  he^y  Irish  cloud  or  thunder-Jbearing  water- 
spout passed  over  his  and  her  days,  she  knew  how  to 
put  her  husband  and  his  courage,  like  a  Dutch  fortress, 
quite  under  water,  and  gave  free  vent  to  all  her  tears. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  the  sun  of  fortune  cast  a  gleam  of 
December  sunshine,  not  broader  than  a  window,  into 
their  room,  then  Lenette  was  sure  to  have  a  hundred 
other  things  to  do  and  to  see,  sooner  than  remark  the 
more  lovely  one.  Firmian  had  made  a  special  resolution 
that,  now  that  he  was  in  possession  of  a  .florin  or  two,  he 
would  winnow  or  take  the  cream  off  these  few  days  to 
his  heart's  content,  and  that  he  would  closely  cover  over 
the  second  Janus-face,  that  might  look  or  weep  over  the 
past  or  future :  but  Lenette  tore  down  the  veil,  and 
pointed  to  everything. 

Her  husband  said,  beseechingly,  more  than  once, 
"  Dear  one,  do  but  wait  until  we  are  again  as  poor  as 
rats,  and  once  more  lead  the  life  of  a  dog,  and  then  I 
will  sigh  and  groan  with  you  with  pleasure."  It  was  of 
little  avail.  Only  once  she  returned  him  a  decent  an- 
swer :  "  How  long  will  it  be  before  we  are  again  without 
.  a  penny  in  the  house  ?  " 

But  to  this  he  knew  how  to  return  a  still  more  reason- 
able answer.  "It  seems,  then,  you  are  determined  not 
to  enjoy  a  cheerful,  quiet  day  until  one  can  swear  to  you 
on  the  Gospel  that  no  miserable,  dark,  cloudy  day  will 
follow  it.  In  that  case,  you  can  never  enjoy  one.  What 
king  and  emperor  even,  had  he  thrones  upon  his  head 
and  crowns  to  sit  on,  can  be  assured  that  his  post-day 


6       FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


or  diet-day  will  not  bring  him  some  cloud  ?  and  yet  he 
enjoys  his  bright  day  in  Sans  Souci,  or  Bellevue,  or  else- 
where, without  further  question,  and  thus  rejoices  in  his 
life."  She  shook  her  head.  "  I  can^prove  the  same 
thing  to  you  in  Greek  and  in  print,"  said  he  ;  upon 
which  he  took  down  the  Testament,  and,  opening  it,  in- 
serted the  following  passage,  which  he  read  off  extem- 
pore. "  If  thou  deferrest  the  heart's  celebration  qf  a 
period  of  bliss  until  another  cometh,  when  all  the  hopes 
of  thy  future  years  shall  lie  spread  out  before  thee  in 
unclouded  sequence  and  beauty,  then  is  there  no  joy 
conceivable  upon  our  ever-changing  sphere,  for  after  ten 
days  or  ten  years  a  sorrow  shall  surely  come  ;  and  thus 
thou  canst  not  take  delight  in  a  May-day,  even  though 
it  were  to  rain  blossoms  and  nightingales  upon  thee, 
since  the  winter  shall  most  assuredly  cover  thee  with  its 
snow-flakes  and  nights.  But  if  thou  wilt  enjoy  thy 
warm  youth,  not  terrified  by  the  ice-pit  of  old  age, 
which  awaits  thee  in  the  background,  and  in  which, 
under  an  ever-increasing  cold,  thou  wilt  be  preserved  for 
a  season,  then  look  upon  the  glad  to-day  as  a  long  youth, 
and  upon  the  sad  to-morrow  as  a  short  old  age." 

"  The  Greek  or  the  Latin,"  answered  she,  "  have  in- 
deed a  more  spiritual  sound,  and  the  thing  is  often 
preached  from  the  pulpit,  and  I  always  return  home 
much  consoled,  until  the  money  is  gone  again." 

It  was  still  more  difficult  to  bring  her  to  leap  properly 
for  joy  at  the  dinner-table  at  mid-day.  If  anything  bet- 
ter than  their  ordinary  mess  smoked  upon  the  table,  — 
any  particular  Egyptian  fleshpot,  a  rare  piece  of  roast 
meat,  such  as  without  disgrace  to  themselves  might  have 
been  provided  by  the  Counts  of  Wratislau  and  carved 


CHAPTER  IX. 


7 


by  the  Counts  of  Waldstein,*  —  if  such  a  feast,  I  say, 
smoked  upon  their  table-cloth,  Siebenkäs  might  be  cer- 
tain that  his  wife  had  a  hundred  things  more  than  usual 
to  do  and  put  away  before  she  could  come  to  dinner. 

The  husband  sits  there  ready  to  stick  in  his  fork  ;  he 
looks  around  him,  first  quietly,  then  grimly,  but  yet  man- 
ages to  contain  himself  for  a  few  minutes.  In  the  mean 
time,  having  such  good  leisure  near  the  roast  beef,  he 
reflects  upon  his  misery.  At  last  out  bursts  the  first  clap 
of  thunder  from  his  storm,  and  he  screams  out,  "  Thun- 
der and  lightning  !  here  have  I  been  sitting  a  whole  sec- 
ulum,  and  everything  is  getting  cold.    Wife  !  wife  !  " 

In  Lenette,  as  in  other  women,  it  was  neither  ill-nature, 
nor  stupidity,  nor  stubborn  indifference  to  the  matter  it- 
self, or  to  her  husband  ;  but  it  was  quite  out  of  her  power 
to  do  otherwise,  and  that  is  a  sufficient  explanation. 

But  my  friend- Siebenkäs,  who  will  get  this  representa- 
tion into  his  hands  even  sooner  than  the  compositor,  must 
not  take  it  ill  of  me  that  I  also  reveal  his  breakfast-fault 
to  the  world.  I  have  it  from  his  own  mouth.  When  he 
was  lying  stretched  out  in  his  trellis-bed  in  the  morning, 
with  his  eyes  closed,  he  fell  upon  ideas  and  forms  of 
expression  for  his  book  which  would  never  have  entered 
his  head  while  he  was  standing  or  sitting ;  and  indeed,  I 
have  read  of  many  scholars,  such,  for  instance,  as  Des 
Cartes,  the  Abbe  Galiani,  and  Basedow  (not  to  count 
myself),  who  belong  to  the  bug  species  of  back-swim- 
mers {Noctonectce),  and  thus  make  most  progress  when 
they  are  lying  down,  and  who  find  the  bed  the  best 
brewing-pan  of  the  most  witty  and  unheard-of  thoughts. 

*  The  former  fills  the  office  of  Lord  High  Steward,  the  latter  of 
Chief  Carver,  to  the  Crown  of  Bohemia. 


8 


FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


I  could  myself  refer  to  much  that  I  have  written  imme- 
diately after  getting  up.  He  who  is  desirous  of  giv- 
ing a  satisfactory  explanation  of  this  circumstance  may 
adduce  the  morning  vigor  of  the  brain,  which  follows 
the  guidance  of  the  spirit  more  easily  and  energetically 
after  the  internal  and  external  holidays;  let  him  add 
to  this,  the  freedom  of  the  brain  both  in  thought  and 
motion,  the  day  not  having  as  yet  impressed  its  numerous 
directions  upon  it ;  and  lastly,  he  may  adduce  the  strength 
of  the  first-born,  with  which  the  first  thought  in  the 
morning,  like  the  first  impressions  of  youth,  is  endowed. 

Now,  in,  accordance  with  the  above  explanation,  noth- 
ing could  be  more  unpleasant  to  the  Advocate,  while 
he  was  thus  growing  in  the  warm  forcing-house  of  the 
pillows,  and  bearing  the  best  blossoms  and  fruits,  than 
to  hear  Lenette  call  out  from  the  sitting-room,  "  Come 
in,  the  coffee  is  ready  !  "  He  generally  .contrived,  never- 
theless, to  give  bi^th  in  his  haste  to  one  or  two  happy, 
lively  thoughts  in  his  childbed,  though  in  continual  dread 
of  a  second  order  to  march.  But  as  Lenette  was  already 
aware  that  he  allowed  himself  a  few  minutes'  grace  or 
respite  before  getting  up,  she  called  to  him  in  the  bed- 
chamber when  the  coffee  was  only  just  beginning  to  boil, 
"  Get  up  ;  it  will  be  quite  cold  !  " 

The  satirical  back-swimmer,  on  his  side,  soon  learnt 
this  advance  of  the  equinoxes  ;  and  he  remained  quite 
snug  and  happy,  laboring  in  the  feathers,  and  went  on 
breeding  after  Lenette's  first  call,  and  merely  answered, 
"  This  minute  ! "  availing  himself  of  the  double  usance* 
allowed  by  law. 

*  Technical  term  for  the  period  fixed  for  the  payment  of  bills  of 
exchange.  —  Tk. 


CHAPTER  IX.  9 

This,  in  turn,  again  obliged  the  wife  to  go  still  further 
back,  and  to  call  out,  while  the  coffee  was  yet  cold 
at  the  fire,  "  Come,  it  will  get  cold  !  "  But  in  this  way, 
mutually  getting  earlier  and  later,  the  matter  became 
evejc  day  more  ticklish,  and  there  was  no  seeing  how  it 
waÄ»  end ;  indeed,  it  was  to  be  feared  Lenette  would 
call  him  to  his  coffee  a  whole  day  beforehand,  though 
eventually  it  would  come  to  the  same  thing,  and  both 
would  act  exactly  as  before,  — just  as  the  suppers  of  the 
present  day  threaten  to  become  early  breakfasts,  and  the 
breakfasts  early  and  unfashionable  dinners.  Unfortunate- 
ly Siebenkäs  could  not  hold  by  the  sheet-anchor  of 
hearing  the  coffee  ground,  and  then  by  an  easy  calcu- 
lation get  up,  so  as  to  be  ready  by  the  time  it  had 
reached  the  boiling-point ;  for,  having  no  coffee-roaster 
and  coffee-mill,  nothing  but  ready-ground  coffee  was 
bought  in  the  whole  house.  To  be  sure,  coffee-roaster 
and  coffee-mill  might  have  been  dispensed  with,  could 
Lunette  have  been  induced  not  to  call  him  to  his  coffee 
one  moment  before  it  boiled  and  smoked  upon  the  table  ; 
but  to  this  she  was  not  to  be  induced. 

Little  disputes  before  marriage  are  great  ones  after 
it ;  as  northerly  winds,  which  are  warm  in  summer,  blow 
keen  and  cold  in  winter.  The  zephyr-breeze  from  mar- 
ried lungs  resembles  the  zephyr  in  Homer,  about  the  cut- 
ting cold  of  which  the  poet  sings  so  much.  From  this 
time  forward  Firmian  set  about  looking  for  new  cracks, 
feathers,  ashes,  clouds,  in  the  bright  diamond  of  Le- 
nette's  heart.  Poor  fellow  !  in  this  way  one  stone 
after  another  must  fall  down  from  the  crumbling  altar  of 
thy  love,  and  thy  flame  of  sacrifice  must  waver  and  be 
extinguished.  He  now  discovered  that  Lenette  was  far 
1* 


io      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


from  being  as  learned  as  the  Miss  Burmanns  and  Miss 
Reiskas.  It  is  true  no  book  caused  her  ennui,  but 
neither  did  anyone  afford  her  pleasure;  and  she  could 
read  her  book  of  sermons  as  often  as  scholars  read  Ho- 
mer and  Kant.  The  whole  of  her  profane  library^jp- 
sisted  of  one  married  pair  of  authors  ;  the  authored of 
the  cookery-book  and  her  husband,  whose  works,  how- 
ever, she  never  read.  She  paid  the  tribute  of  the  great- 
est admiration  to  his  essays,  but  never  looked  into  them. 
Three  sensible  words  with  the  bookbinder's  wife  were 
of  more  value  to  her  than  all  the  printed  words  of  the 
bookbinder  and  bookmaker.  A  scholar,  who  makes  noth- 
ing all  the  year  long  but  new  arguments  and  new  ink, 
cannot  imagine  how  a  person  can  exist  who  never  has 
a  book  or  a  pen  in  his  hand,  and  has  no  other  ink  but 
the  borrowed  rusty  ink  of  the  village  schoolmaster. 

He  often  undertook  a  new  professorship,  and  ascended 
the  pulpit  in  order  to  initiate  her  into  some  of  the  ele- 
mentary principles  of  astronomy ;  but  either  she  had  ho 
pineal  gland  as  the  castle  of  the  soul  and  its  thoughts, 
or  the  chambers  of  her  brain  were  already  so  crammed 
and  satiated  and  stuffed  to  the  very  skin  with  lace,  caps, 
shirts,  saucepans,  and  frying-pans,  that,  in  a  word,  it  was 
quite  out  of  his  power  to  put  a  star  into  her  head  which 
was  bigger  than  a  ball  of  thread. 

With  pneumatology  (psychology),  on  the  contrary,  he 
had  exactly  the  reverse  difficulty  to  contend  with.  In 
this  science,  where  the  infinitesimal  calculation  applied 
to  the  small  would  have  been  as  serviceable  to  him  as 
the  calculation  of  the  infinitely  great  in  the  science  of 
a-tronomy,  Lenette  pulled  and  stretched  angels,  souls, 
and  everything  else,  and  put  the  most  subtle  spirits  on 


CHAPTEE  IX. 


the  stretching-machine  of  her  imagination.  Angels,  of 
which  a  scholiast  would  have  invited  whole  companies  to 
a  private  ball  on  the  tip  of  a  needle,  or  which  he  could 
have  threaded  in  pairs  exactly  in  the  same  spot,*  — 
these  expanded  so  in  her  hands  that  she  was  obliged  to 
put  every  angel  into  a  separate  cradle,  and  the  Devil 
swelled  out  to  such  a  size  that  at  last  he  grew  as  big  as 
her  husband.  He  also  found  a  terrible  ironmould,  or 
pock-mark,  or  wart,  in  her  heart.  He  could  never  in- 
spire her  with  a  lyrical  enthusiasm  of  lov^  in  which 
she  could  forget  heaven  and  earth,  and  everything  else. 
She  could  count  the  strokes  of  the  town-clock  between 
his  kisses,  and  could  listen  and  run  off  to  the  saucepan 
that  was  boiling  over  with  all  the  big  tears  in  her  eyes 
which  he  had  pressed  out  of  her  melting  heart  by  a 
touching  story  or  a  sermon.  She  accompanied  in  her 
devotion  the  Sunday  hymns,  which  echoed  loudly  from 
the  neighboring  apartments,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  verse 
she  would  interweave  the  prosaic  question,  "  What  shall 
I  warm  up  for  supper  ? "  and  he  could  never  banish 
from  his  remembrance  that  once  when  she  was  quite 
touched,  and  listening  to  his  cabinet  discourse  upon  death 
and  eternity,  she  looked  at  him  thoughtfully,  but  to- 
wards his  feet,  and  at  length  said,  "  Don't  put  on  the  left 
stocking  to-morrow,  I  must  first  darn  it. " 

The  author  of  this  history  declares  that  he  has  some- 
times almost  lost  his  wits  at  such  feminine  interludes, 
against  which  there  is  no  security  for  one  who  loves  to 
mount  up  into  the  ether  with  these  pretty  birds  of  para- 
dise, and  rocks  himself  up  and  down  near  them,  and 

*  The  scholiasts  believe  that  two  angels  have  room  in  one  and  the 
same  spot:  Ocean.  1  qu.  qusest.  and  others. 


12      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

expects  to  hatch  the  eggs  of  his  imagination  there  aloft 
on  the  backs  of  these  birds.*  Suddenly,  as  if  by  en- 
chantment, the  winged  female  glimmers  greenly  down 
below  on  a  clod  of  earth.  I  grant  this  is  nothing  but  an 
additional  excellence  ;  for  in  this  they  resemble  the  hens, 
whose  eyes  are  so  well  ground  by  the  Optician  of  the 
universe,  that  they  see  the  furthest  sparrowhawk  in  the 
sky  and  the  nearest  grain  of  barley  on  the  dunghill.  It 
is,  indeed,  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  the  author  of  this 
history,  in  case  he  marry,  may  get  a  wife  to  whom  he 
can  read  t^fe  first  principles  and  dictata  of  the  sciences 
of  psychology  and  astronomy,  and  who  will  not  introduce 
his  stockings  just  at  the  moment  when  he  is  carried 
away  by  his  enthusiasm.  But  he  would  be  content, 
even  if  one  should  fall  to  his  lot  who  were  less  gifted, 
but  who  would  nevertheless  be  able  to  fly  with  him  as 
far  as  he  went ;  into  whose  expanded  eye  and  heart  the 
blooming  earth  and  the  bright  heavens  do  not  enter 
infinitesimally  but  in  sublime  masses ;  for  whom  the 
universe  is  something  more  than  a  nursery  and  a  ball- 
room ;  and  who,  with  a  feeling  that  is  at  once  tender  and 
delicate,  and  with  a  heart  that  is  at  the  same  time  pious 
and  large,  continually  improves  and  hallows  the  man  she 
weds.  This  is  the  utmost  limit  to  which  the  author  of 
this  history  extends  his  wishes.    He  desires  no  more. 

While  the  blossom,  if  not  the  leaves,  fell  off  from  Fir- 
mian's  love,  Lenette's  was  like  a  full-blown  rose  past 
its  bloom,  the  beauty  of  which  is  scattered  to  the  winds 
on  the  slightest  touch.     The  everlasting  argumentation 

*  It  was  fabulously  said,  that  the  male  of  the  birds  of  paradise 
batched  the  eggs  of  the  female  on  her  back  while  hovering  in  the 
air. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


J3 


of  her  husband  at  length  wearied  her  heart.  She  be- 
longed, moreover,  to  that  class  of  women  whose  loveliest 
blossoms  remain  dormant  and  unfruitful  unless  children 
throng  about  to  enjoy  them,  —  even  as  the  blossoms  of 
the  vine  produce  no  grapes  unless  bees  swarm  amongst 
them.  She  resembled  the  same  women  also  in  being 
born  to  be  the  spiral  spring  of  a  domestic  machine,  —  the 
theatrical  directress  of  a  great  household  drama ;  but  in 
what  condition  the  principal  shares  and  state  shares  and 
theatrical  treasury  of  his  household  were,  that  we  all 
know  from  Hamburg  to  Ofen.  Like  phcenixes  and 
giants,  they  had  no  children,  and  they  stood  apart,  like 
separate  columns,  not  united  by  any  garland  of  fruit  or 
flowers,  Firmian,  in  imagination,  had  already  rehearsed 
the  parts  of  father  and  godfather-seeker  in  his  humorous 
way,  but  it  never  came  to  a  representation. 

What  did  him  the  most  injury  in  Lenette's  heart  was, 
every  point  of  character  in  which  he  differed  from  Pelz- 
stiefel.  The  Schulrath  was  as  tiresome,  as  pomnous,  as 
grave  and  reserved,  as  pedantic  and  stiff,  puffed  up  and 
ungainly,  as  —  these  three  lines.  All  this  pleased  our 
born  housekeeper.  Siebenkäs,  on  the  contrary,  was  all 
day  long  a  harlequin.  She  often  said  to  him,  "  The  peo- 
ple will  think  you  are  not  in  your  right  senses  "  ;  to  which 
he  would  answer,  "  And  ami?"  He  disguised  his  beau- 
tiful heart  beneath  the  grotesque  comic  mask,  and  con- 
cealed his  height  by  the  trodden-down  sock  ;  turning  the 
short  game  of  his  life  into  a  farce  and  comic  epic  poem. 
He  was  fond  of  grotesque  actions  from  higher  motives 
than  mere  vanity.  In  the  first  place,  he  delighted  in  the 
sense  of  freedom  experienced  by  a  soul  unshackled  by  the 
trammels  of  circumstance ;  and  secondly,  he  enjoyed  the 


14     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


satirical  consciousness  of  caricaturing  rather  than  imitat- 
ing the  follies  of  humanity.  While  acting,  he  had  a  two- 
fold consciousness,  —  that  of  the  comic  actor  and  of  the 
spectator.  A  humorist  in  action  is  but  a  satirical  impro- 
visators Every  male  reader  understands  this  ;  but  no 
female  reader. 

I  have  often  wished  to  give  a  woman  who  beheld  the 
white  sunbeam  of  wisdom  decomposed,  checkered,  and 
colored  from  behind  the  prism  of  humor,  a  well-ground 
glass  which  would  bum  this  variegated  row  of  colors 
white  again  ;  but  it  would  not  answer.  The  woman's 
delicate  sense  of  the  becoming  is  scratched  and  wounded, 
so  to  say,  by  everything  angular  and  unpolished.  These 
souls,  bound  up  to  the  pole  of  conventional  propriety,  can- 
not comprehend  a  soul  which  opposes  itself  to  these  rela- 
tions ;  and  therefore  in  the  hereditary  realms  of  women, 
the  courts,  and  in  their  kingdom  of  shadows,  France, 
there  are  seldom  any  humorists  to  be  found,  either  of  the 
pen  or  jn  real  life. 

It  was  quite  natural  that  Lenette  should  fret  and  be 
angry  with  her  whistling,  singing,  dancing  husband,  who 
did  not  even  assume  an  official  mien  before  his  clients  ; 
.  who,  alas !  (so  it  was  currently  reported)  often  went 
walking  about  in  a  circle  round  the  Rabenstein  (gallows- 
hill)  ;  of  whose  understanding  very  clever  people  spoke 
dubiously  ;  and  in  whose  behavior  she  complained,  no  one 
would  discover  that  he  resided  in  an  imperial  city  ;  and 
lastly,  who  was  only  shy  and  abashed  before  one  single 
person  in  the  world,  '■ —  himself.  Did  not  chambermaids, 
for  instance,  often  come  with  caps  to  be  sewed  from  the 
most  respectable  houses  into  his,  and  behold  him  —  the 
devil-may-care  fellow  that  he  was  —  standing  at  his 


CHAPTER  IX. 


'5 


worn-out  piano,  which  still  possessed  all  its  keys,  and 
almost  as  many  strings  as  keys,  while  he  held  a  yard- 
measure  in  his  mouth,  along  which,  as- a  let-down  draw- 
bridge, the  tones  came  up  to  him  from  the  sounding-board 
through  the  portcullis  of  his  teeth,  and  at  last  through  the 
eustachian-tube  over  the  drum-skin  of  the  ear  into  the 
soul  ?  He  held  the  yard  between  his  teeth  like  a  stork's 
bilHn  his  own,  in  order  jto  elevate  the  increasing  pianis- 
simo of  his  instrument  into  a  fortissimo.  But  the  humor, 
it  is  true,  assumes  a  milder  tone  of  coloring  in  the  reflec- 
tion of  a  narration  than  it  possessed  in  the  brightness  of 
reality. 

The  ground  upon  which  these  two  good  creatures  were 
standing  was  rent  by  so  many  shocks  ever  further  asun- 
der into  two  separate  islands.  Time  again  brought  an 
earthquake.  # 

The  Heimlicher  again  came  upon  the  scene  with  his 
action  of  objection,  in  which  all  that  he  demanded  was 
justice  and  equity,  —  namely,  the  inheritance,  unless  Sie- 
benkäs could  prove  that  he  was  —  himself ;  that  is,  the 
ward,  whose  patrimony  the  Heimlicher  had,  up  to  this 
period,  preserved  in  his  paternal  hands  and  purse. 

This  judicial  river  of  hell  took  away  our  Firmian's 
breath,  and  went  like  ice  to  his  heart,  although  he  had 
jumped  over  the  previous  three  petitions  for  postpone- 
ment as  easily  as  the  crowned  lion  in  the  arms  of  Gotha 
jumps  over  the  three  rivers.  The  wounds  which  are  cut 
into  us  by  the  instruments  of  destiny  soon  close  ;  but  a 
wound  inflicted  by  the  rusty,  blunt  instrument  of  torture 
of  an  unjust  man  begins  to  suppurate,  and  it  is  long  ere 
it  closes. 

This  cut  into  exposed  nerves,  which  had  already  been 


l6      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


bared  by  so  many  rude  grasps  and  sharp  tongues,  caused 
our  friend  severe  pain ;  and  yet  he  had  foreseen  the  im- 
pending blow,  and  had  previously  called  out  to  his  soul, 
"  Beware  !"  head  aside  ! "  But  alas  !  in  every  sorrow 
there  is  something  new.  He  had  even  taken  judicial 
measures  against  it  beforehand,  and  had  received  some 
weeks  before  from  Leipsic,  where  he  had  studied,  written 
evidence  to  prove  that  he  formerly  went  under  the  name 
of  Leibgeber,  and  consequently  was  Blaise's  ward;  A  no- 
tary of  that  place,  of  the  name  of  Geigold,  an  old  cham- 
ber-chum and  literary  comrade,  but  who  had  not  yet  been 
matriculated,  had  done  him  the  favor  to  take  the  deposi- 
tions of  all  the  people  who  were  acquainted  with  his 
Leibgeber-ship ;  especially  of  one  rusty,  mouldy  pro- 
fessor, who  had  often  been  present  at  the  arrival  of  the 
guardian's  register-ships  ;  also  of  tb^postman  or  pilot 
who  piloted  them  into  harbor,  and  of  his  landlord,  and 
several  other  well-informed  people,  all  of  whom  were 
ready  to  take  the  juramentum  credulitatis  (tne  oath  of  self- 
conviction),  —  of  all  these,  I  say,  the  young  Geigold  had 
taken  the  depositions,  and  despatched  the  document  to  the 
Advocate.  It  was  easy  enough  for  Siebenkäs  to  pay  the 
postage  while  he  was  king  of  the  hawkers. 

With  this  stout  club  of  testimony,  he  answered  and 
combated  his  guardian  and  thief. 

When  the  refusal  of  Blaise  appeared,  the  timid  Lenette 
believed  that  she  and  the  lawsuit  were  both  lost.  In  her 
eyes,  stern  Poverty  now  clasped  them  both  with  thongs 
.of  ivy  ;  and  they  had  nothing  in  view  but  to  wither  and 
crumble  into  ruins.  The  first  thing  she  did  was  to  let 
loose  a  torrent  of  abuse  against  Meyern  ;  for  as  he  had 
lately  confessed  that  it  was-  he  who  had  prevailed  upon 


CHAPTER  IX. 


"7 


his  future  father-in-law  to  petition  three  several  times  for 
postponement  in  order  to  spare  her,  she  in  consequence 
looked  upon  the  refusal  of  Blaise  as  the  first  thorn-sucker 
proceeding  from  Rosa's  revengeful  soul,  on  account  of  his 
having  suffered  in  Firmian's  house,  firstly,  imprisonment 
and  sacking,  —  all  which  he  ascribed  to  Lenette,  —  and 
secondly,  because  he  had  lost  so  much. 

He  had  formerly  supposed  it  was  only  the  husband,  and 
not  the  wife,  whose  indignation  was  roused  against  him ; 
but  the  bird-shooting  had  convinced  him  that  this  was  a 
sweet  delusion  of  his  own  vanity,  and  had  wounded  his 
pride.  But  as  the  Venner  was  not  there  to  listen  to  her 
anger,  she  was  obliged  to  direct  it  against  her  husband, 
who  was  the  cause  of  all,  she*  said,  by  so  sinfully  giving 
away  his  name  Leibgeber.  He  who  has  married  a  wife 
will  be  willing  to  spare  me  the  proof — for  it  rests  with 
himself —  that  nothing  the  husband  could  bring  forward 
for  his  defence  was  of  the  slightest  avail.  He  adduced 
the  wickedness  of  Blaise,  who,  being  the  greatest  Iscariot 
and  arch-Jew  in  this  terrestrial  Jerusalem  of  earth, 
would  equally  have  robbed  him,  even  if  he  had  preserved 
the  name  of  Leibgeber;  and  would  have  discovered  a 
thousand  by-paths  of  equity  to  plunder  his  wards.  It  had 
no  effect.   At  last  the  following  words  escaped  him :  — 

"  You  are  as  unjust  as  I  should  be  were  I  to  lay  this 
document  of  Blaise  to  the  charge  of  your  behavior  to  the 
Venner." 

Nothing  exasperates  a  woman  more  than  a  depreciating 
comparison,  for  they  accept  no  distinction.  Lenette's 
ears  stretched  themselves  out,  like  those  of  Fame,  into 
tongues.  Her  husband  was  at  once  out-screamed,  and  no 
longer  listened  to. 

VOL.  II.  B 


18      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


He  was  obliged  to  send  off  secretly  to  Pelzstiefel, 
and  ask  him  where  he  had  hidden  himself  all  this  time, 
and  why  he  had  forgotten  their  house.  But  Stiefel  was 
not  at  home,  having  gone  out  to  walk  on  such  a  lovely 
day. 

"  Lenette ! "  suddenly  exclaimed  Siebenkäs,  who  fre- 
quently chose  to  jump  over  a  morass  by  the  leaping-pole 
of  an  idea,  rather  than  to  wade  laboriously  out  of  it  by 
the  help  of  the  long  stilts  of  syllogisms,  and  who  desired 
to  banish  from  Lenette's  memory  the  innocent  remark  he 
had  made  about  Rosa,  which  she  had  so  misunderstood,  — 
"  Lenette,"  said  he,  "  listen  to  what  we  will  do  this  after- 
noon. We  will  take  a  strong  cup  of  coffee  and  a  walk, 
and  enjoy  ourselves.  True,  it  is  not  Sunday  in  the  town 
to-day  ;  but  it  is,  at  all  events,  the  Annunciation  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  which  is  celebrated  by  every  Catholic  in 
Kuhschnappel ;  and,  by  Heaven !  the  weather  is  too 
lovely  !  We  will  go  and  sit  in  the  unheated  room  of  the 
shooting-house,  —  for  it  is  too  warm  out  of  doors,  —  and 
from  thence  look  down  upon  all  the  heterodox  of  the  city, 
promenading  in  their  gala-dresses ;  and  perhaps  we  shall 
see  our  Lutheran  Stiefel  besides." 

Either  I  must  be  very  much  deceived,  or  Lenette  was 
very  agreeably  surprised ;  for  coffee,  which  even  in  the 
morning  is  the  water  of  baptism  and  altar-wine  of  women, 
is  in  the  afternoon  both  a  love-potion  and  water  of  strife, — 
although  the  latter  only  towards  the  absent.  But  what 
an  excellent  moving  stream  upon  all  the  mill-wheels  of 
her  ideas  a  real  afternoon  cup  of  coffee  on  a  simple  work- 
day must  be  for  a  woman,  like  poor  Lenette,  who  had 
seldom  drank  it  except  after  an  afternoon's  sermon  on 
Sunday,  because,  even  before  the  continental  blockade,  it 
was  too  dear  for  her! 


CHAPTER  I'X. 


'9 


Under  a  genuine  impulse  of  joy,  women  require  but 
little  time  to  put  on  their  black-silk  bonnets,  take  their 
broad  church-fan  in  hand,  and,  contrary  to  all  their  usual 
habits,  be  ready  dressed  and  prepared  for  the  walk  to  the 
shooting-house  in  a  few  minutes  ;  having  even  boiled  the 
coffee  while  they  were  dressing,  that  they  might  take  it 
with  them  ready-made,  together  with  the  milk,  into  the 
club-room. 

The  married  pair  sallied  forth  at  two  o'clock  in  a 
cheerful  mood,  and  carried  warm  in  their  pockets  all  that 
was  afterwards  to  be  warmed  up. 

A  radiance  like  the  flush  of  sunset  was  shed  thus 
early  in  the  day  by  the  low  December  sun  over  all  the 
mountains  to  the  south  and  west ;  and  the  cloud-glaciers 
scattered  about  the  heavens  cast  a  cheerful  light  upon 
the  whole  scene,  and  everywhere  there  was  a  brightness 
about  the  world  ;  and  many  a  dark,  confined  life  uras  made 
lighter. 

Siebenkäs  pointed  out  to  Lenette,  while  yet  at  some 
distance,  the  bird-pole,  which  had  been  the  Alpine  stick 
or  rudder  that  had  lately  helped  him  out  of  his  most 
pressing  need.  Arrived  at  the  shooting-house,  he  led 
her  to  the  shooter's  stand,  —  his  conclave,  or  Frankfort 
Römer  of  coronation,  —  where  he  had  raised  himself  by 
his  rifle  to  a  bird-emperor,  and  out  of  the  Frankfort  Jew- 
street  of  creditors,  having  on  ascending  the  throne  given 
freedom  to  one  debtor  at  least,  —  himself.  In  the  spa- 
cious saloon  of  the  honorable  members  of  the  club,  they 
could  spread  themselves  comfortably  out,  —  he  at  a 
table  placed  before  the  right  window  occupied  with  his 
writing,  she  at  another  table  in  the  left  window  at  her 
sewing. 


20     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


How  the  coffee  gave  additional  warmth  to  the  Decem- 
ber festival  in  both  may  be  imagined,  but  not  described  ! 
Lenette  drew  on  one  of  the  Advocate's  stockings  after 
the  other,  —  that  is,  on  her  left  arm,  for  in  the  right  she 
held  the  darning-needle,  —  and  as  she  thus  sat  with  the 
stocking,  which  was  frequently  quite  out  at  heel,  she  re- 
sembled, in  one  arm  at  least,  a  lady  of  the  present  day, 
who  is  adorned  by  the  long  Danish  mitten,  with  holes  for 
the  fingers.  But  she  did  not  pull  up  the  arm-stocking 
high  enough  to  be  seen  by  those  who  were  promenading 
on  a  higher  walk  of  art ;  and  she  nodded  her  "  most 
humble  maid,"  "  most  obedient  servant,"  out  of  the  open 
window  almost  incessantly.  She  beheld  many  of  the 
most  genteel  heretics  below,  carrying  her  own  artificial 
cap-structures  along  the  walks  to  celebrate  the  Annuncia- 
tion of  the  Virgin  Mary  ;  and  more  than  one  was  the  first 
to  greet  obligingly  her  roof-slater  up  at  the  window. 

In  consequence  of  the  religious  equality  that  by  law  of 
the  empire  prevailed  in  the  imperial  market-town,  Prot- 
estants of  rank  likewise  went  walking  on  the  Catholic 
festival ;  and  I  rise  progressively  from  the  notary  Börstel 
to  the  morning-preacher  Reuel,  up  to  Herr  Oelhafen, 
member  of  the  Board  of  Health.  And  yet  the  Advocate 
was  probably  as  happy  as  his  wife.  He  went  on  writing 
his  Devil's  papers,  and  gazed,  at  the  same  time,  not  at 
the  high  ones,  but  at  the  heights  of  the  place. 

On  his  first  entrance  into  the  room  he  had  received 
great  pleasure  from  a  child's  trumpet,  which  had  been 
left  there  by  accident,  and  from  which  all  the  color  had 
not  yet  been  licked  off ;  it  was  not  so  much  its  squeaking 
voice  as  the  smell  of  the  paint  which  delighted  him,  for  it 
wafted  him  back  on  this  day  of  the  Christmas  month  into 


CHAPTER  IX.  21 

all  the  vague  raptures  of  the  Christmas  festival  of  child- 
hood. Thus  one  pleasure  was  added  to  the  other.  He 
could  get  up  from  his  satires,  and  point  out  to  Lenette, 
with  his  forefinger,  the  large  rook's-nests  in  the  naked 
trees,  and  the  exposed  benches  and  tables  in  the  leafless 
arbors  of  the  garden,  and  the  invisible  guests,  who  in 
summer  evenings  there  found  their  "  seats  of  the  blessed," 
and  who  yet  cherish  the  event  in  their  memory,  and  look 
forward  to  the  time  when  they  shall  sit  there  again.  It 
was  easy,  too,  from  his  position  to  draw  Lenette's  atten- 
tion to  the  fields,  whence,  thus  late  in  the  season,  volun- 
teer female  gardeners  brought  away  salad,  —  that  is,  wild 
salad  or  rampions,  which,  if  he  pleased,  he  might  eat  that 
evening  for  supper. 

And  now  he  gazed  from  his  window  upon  the  ruddy 
evening  mountains,  towards  which  the  sun  descended, 
growing  larger  and  larger,  and  behind  which  lay  the 
lands  where  his  Leibgeber  wandered  and  sported  away 
his  life. 

"  How  delightful  it  is,  dear  wife,"  said  he,  "  that  I 
am  not  parted  from  Leibgeber  by  a  broad,  flat  plain,  with 
only  little  swellings  of  hills,  but  by  a  fine  majestic  wall  of 
mountains,  behind  which  he  stands,  as  it  were,  behind  the 
grille  of  a  parlatorio." 

To  her,  indeed,  this  almost  seemed  as  if  her  husband 
rejoiced  in  the  wall  of  separation  ;  for  she  herself  had 
little  or  no  liking  for  Leibgeber,  having  only  found  in 
him  the  clipper  of  her  husband, -one  who  cut  him  rougher 
and  sharper  than  he  was  already :  however,  in  such 
dubious  cases  she  was  glad  to  be  silent,  in  order  not  to 
ask  questions.  He  had  meant  quite  the  contrary,  viz. 
that  we  prefer  being  parted  from  beloved  hearts  by  the 


22      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


holy  mountains,  because  it  is  behind  these  alone,  as  be- 
hind higher  garden-walls,  that  we  seek  and  behold  the 
blooming  thicket  of  our  Eden,  Nvhile  on  the  border  of 
the  longest  threshing-floor  of  level  country  we  expect 
nothing  better  than  a  still  longer  one  over  again.  This 
holds  good  even  with  nations.  Neither  the  heath  of 
Lüneburg  nor  the  Prussian  steppes  will  direct  even  the 
Italian's  gaze  to  Italy  ;  but  the  inhabitant  of  the  steppes, 
when  in  Italy,  will  gaze  upon  the  Apennines,  and  yearn 
to  be  with  his  German  loved  ones  behind  them. 

From  the  sunny  mountain-partition  of  two  divided 
spirits,  much,  it  is  true,  flowed  into  the  eyes  of  the 
Advocate  of  the  Poor,  amid  his  satirical  labors,  that 
looked  like  a  tear  ;  but  he  moved  his  chair  a  little  aside, 
that  Lenette  might  make  no  inquiry  about  it,  for  he  was 
aware  of  a  weakness  he  had,  and  therefore  endeavored 
to  guard  against  it,  of  growing  angry  when  any  one 
asked  him,  "  What  ailed  him,  that  he  wept  ?  "  Was  he 
not  to-day  tenderness  personified?  and  did  he  not  ex- 
press the  comic  in  presence  of  his  wife  by  the  more 
serious  middle  tints  alone,  because  he  took  pleasure  in 
the  flourishing  growth  of  her  joy,  which  had  been  sown 
by  himself?  It  is  true,  Lenette  did  not  at  all  suspect 
this  delicate  consideration ;  but  in  the  same  way  as  he 
was  perfectly  satisfied,  when  no  one  but  himself — she, 
least  of  all  —  was  aware  that  he  made  the  most  delicate 
sallies  upon  herself,  even  so  it  was  when  he  paid  her  the 
most  delicate  attentions. 

At  length,  filled  with  warmth,  they  abandoned  the 
spacious  apartment  just  as  the  sun  had  dressed  them. in 
purple.  As  he  stepped  out  of  the  shooting-house,  he 
pointed  out  to  Lenette  the  liquid  golden  glance  on  the 


CHAPTER  IX. 


23 


long  glass  roofs  of  two  greenhouses,  and  he  clung  to  the 
sun,  now  cut  in  twain  by  the  mountain,  in  order  that  he 
might  go  with  it  to  his  friend,  who  was  far  away.  Ah, 
how  much  we  love  one  another  in  the  distance,  whether 
it  be  the  distance  of  space,  the  distance  of  the  future  or 
of  the  past,  or,  more  than  all,  that  double  distance  beyond 
the  earth  !  And  thus  the  evening  might  have  concluded 
excellently,  had  not  something  intervened. 

Some  sharp-witted  evM  spirit  or  other  had  conducted 
the  Heimlicher  Blaise,  and  posted  him  out  of  doors  as  a 
promenader,  so  that  the  Advocate  must  needs  stumble 
upon  him  within  shot  and  greeting  distance,  just  on  this 
festival  of  annunciation  designed  only  for  pure  souls. 

When  his  guardian  had  formally  greeted  him,  though 
with  a  smile  which,  thank  God,  can  never  appear  on 
a  child's  face,  Siebenkäs  politely  returned  his  bow,  but 
accompanied  it  only  by  pulling  and  twisting  his  hat,  and 
not  by  taking  it  off.  Lenette  sought  to  make  amends  for 
this  non-descent  of  the  hat  by  a  doubly  profound  courtesy 
on  her  part;  but,  .as  soon  as  she  had  looked  behind  her, 
she  held  her  husband  a  little  curtain  —  that  is  garden- 
paling —  lecture  upon  his  behavior,  saying,  that  he  always 
purposely  made  his  guardian  more  malicious. 

"  Really,  love,  I  could  not  help  it,"  said  he  ;  "I  meant 
no  ill,  and  least  of  all  to-day." 

The  fact  was,  Siebenkäs  had  some  time  before  com- 
plained to  his  wife  that  his  hat,  which  was  of  fine  felt, 
was  much  injured  by  continually  pulling  it  off  in  the 
little-townish  market-town,  and  that  he  saw  no  other 
means  of  preserving  it  than  by  covering  it  with  the 
armor  of  a  stiff  green  oil-skin  case,  in  order  that,  when 
packed  up  in  this  bandage  and  roller,  he  might  use  it 


24      FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


daily  for  the  politeness  which  men  owe  to  one  another  out 
of  doors,  without  the  least  wear  and  tear. 

The  first  walk  he  took  after  he  had  put  on  his  double 
hat,  or  hat-hat,  was  to  a  grocer's,  where  he  pulled  out  his 
fine  under-hat,  and  changed  it  into  six  pounds  of  coffee, 
which  kept  the  four  chambers  of  his  brain  warmer  than 
the  hare's-skin.  With  the  coadjutor  alone  on  his  head, 
he  returned  home  tranquilly  and  undetected,  and  hence- 
forth wore  the  empty  case  in*  the  crookedest  streets, 
delighting  himself  with  the  secret  consciousness  of  no 
longer  pulling  off  his  true  hat  or  going  chapeau  has  be- 
fore any  living  soul,  and  thinking  of  other  jokes  that  he 
might  derive  in  future  from  his  sugar-loaf. 

It  is  true,  that  when  he  had  forgotten,  as  to-day  for 
instance,  when  it  was  most  excusable,  to  stiffen  out  the 
hat-case  with  the  necessary  artificial  rafters,  it  became 
impossible  to  lift  off  the  case  straight  for  the  purpose  of 
greeting,  and  he  could  therefore  only  touch  it  most  po- 
litely, like  a  very  fine  gentleman-officer  ;  but  thus  he  was 
obliged,  much  against  his  will,  to  assume  the  character 
of  a  rude,  ill-bred  fellow.  And  he  was  forced  to  bear 
this  imputation  this  very  day  of  all  others,  and  could 
not  by  any  possible  means  lift  his  couvert  from  his  head, 
—  this  love-letter  to  all  who  went  walking. 

But  the  walk  was  not  to  conclude  even  with  this  ; 
for  one  of  the  above-mentioned  sharp-witted  evil  spirits 
changed  the  scenes  again  so  rapidly,  that  our  gaze  is 
directed  to  a  new  spectacle.  A  master-tailor,  of  the 
Catholic  confession,  stalked  neatly  dressed .  before  our 
married  couple,  in  order,  like  every  one  else  of  his  con- 
and  pro-fession,  to  celebrate  the  Annunciation-festival. 
Unluckily  the  tailor  had  so  elevated  his  coat-tails  in  the 


CHAPTER  IX. 


25 


narrow  path,  whether  from  fear  of  the  mud  or  in  his 
festive  joy,  that  the  backbone  or  rather  background  of 
his  waistcoat  was  plainly  visible  from  below,  which,  as 
every  one  knows,  is  executed,  like  the  background  of 
paintings,  with  less  lively  colors  than  the  nearer  and  more 
brilliant  foreground  of  the  front  part  of  the  body. 

"  Heh  !  master  !  "  screamed  Lenette  violently,  "  how 
came  you  by  my  chintz  there  behind  ?  " 

And,  in  sooth,  the  tailor  had  put  aside  and  reserved 
for  his  own  particular  use  as  much  of  an  Augsburg  green 
chintz,  of  which,  immediately  on  becoming  queen,  she 
had  employed  him  to  make  her  a  pretty  spencer  or 
bodice,  as,  according  to  the  rule  of  gratuitous  wine- 
samples,  he  deemed  necessary  and  Christian. 

This  little  sample-piece  had  barely  sufficed  for  a  sober 
background  to  his  bright  green  waistcoat,  for  which  he 
had  selected  so  dark  a  reverse,  in  the  hope  that,  as  under- 
side of  the  care,  it  would  not  be  seen.  As  the  tailor  still 
continued  to  walk  on  quietly,  after  Lenette  had  bawled 
out  her  question  behind  his  back,  as  if  it  did  not  concern 
him  in  the  least,  —  the  little  flame  in  her  grew  into  a 
large  flame,  and,  in  spite  of  all  her  husband's  winks  and 
whispers,  she  screamed  out,  "  It  is  my  own  chintz  from 
Augsburg  ;  do  you  hear,  Master  Mouser  ?  and  you  have 
stolen  it  from  me,  —  you,  fellow !  " 

Hereupon  the  chintz-robber  coolly  turned  round  for 
the  first  time,  and  said,  "  Prove  it  —  if  you  can ;  but 
when  I  get  home,  I  '11  chintz  you,  if  there  is  a  high  gov- 
ernment in  Kuhschnappel." 

She  now  flared  up  into  a  blaze.  The  prayers  and  com- 
mands of  the  Advocate  were  but  as  wind  to  her.  "  You 
riff-raff !  I  '11  have  my  own,  you  villain !  "  screamed  she. 

VOL.  11.  2 


26      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

The  only  answer  the  master-tailor  made  to  this  epi- 
logue was  by  lifting  up  his  coat-tails,  with  both  hands, 
unusually  high,  above  the  endorsed  waistcoat ;  and, 
stooping  a  little,  he  retorted,  "  There  !  "  Whereupon  he 
marched  on  slowly,  keeping  in  the  same  focal  distance 
from  her,  in  order  to  enjoy  her  warinth  so  much  the 
longer. 

Most  to  be  pitied,  on  so  rich  a  festival,  was  poor 
Siebenkäs,  who,  with  all  his  juridical  and  theological 
exorcisms,  was  unable  to  cast  out  the  devil  of  discord,  — 
when,  luckily,  his  guardian  angel,  Pelzstiefel,  taking  his 
evening  walk,  suddenly  emerged  from  a  side  path.  Gone, 
for  Lenette,  was  the  tailor,  —  the  quarter  of  a  yard  of 
chintz,  —  gone  the  apple  and  the  devil  of  discord,  —  and, 
like  the  evening  blue  and  the  evening  red,  the  blue  of 
her  eyes  and  the  blush  of  her  cheeks  lay  cool  and  serene 
before  him.  Ten  yards  of  chintz,  and  half  as  many  tai- 
lors to  boot,  who  had  withheld  it  and  patched  it  into  their 
garments,  were  at  this  moment  but  as  light  feathers  in 
her  estimation,  and  not  worth  a  word  or  a  kreuzer,  —  so 
that  Siebenkäs  instantly  perceived  that  Stiefel  drew  near 
her  as  the  true  fruit-bearing  Mount  of  Olives,  stuck  full 
of  the  olive-branches  of  peace  ;  although,  for  devils  of 
discord  from  another  quarter,  an  oil  might  easily  be 
pressed  from  its  olives  which  could  not  be  poured  with 
impunity  upon  any  such  a  matrimonial  fire  of  contention  as 
that  which  Stiefel,  with  his  bucket,  was  intended  to  ex- 
tinguish. 

If  Lenette,  even  out  of  doors,  was  a  soft,  white  but- 
terfly which  silently  fluttered  and  hovered  over  the 
blooming  paths  of  Pelzstiefel,  in  her  own  room,  to  which 
the  Schulrath  accompanied  her,  she  became  a  Greek 


CHAPTER  IX. 


27 


Psyche  ;  and  I  must  enter  it  into  this  protocol,  notwith- 
standing all  my  partiality  for  Lenette,  or  all  the  rest  will 
be  disbelieved,  —  that  on  this  evening,  alas  !  she  seemed 
to  be  nothing  but  a  winged  soul,  with  its  transparent 
wings  detached  fr%n  the  clammy  body,  —  a  soul  which, 
in  former  times,  when  it  was  yet  clothed  with  a  body, 
had  stood  in  love-correspondence  with  the  Schulrath, 
but  which  now  hovered  about  him  with  horizontal  wings, 
fanning  him  with  her  fluttering  feathers,  which  at  length, 
tired  of  floating,  descended  towards  the  material  resting- 
pole  of  a  body ;  and,  no  other  female  one  being  at  hand, 
settled  upon  Lenette's  with  closed  pinions.  Thus  seemed 
Lenette  ;  but  why  was  she  so  to-day  ?  Great  was  Stie- 
fel's  ignorance,  and  joy  at  it ;  small  were  both  in  Fir- 
mian.  But,  before  I  tell  the  cause,  I  will  first  express 
my  pity  for  thee,  poor  man,  and  for  thee,  poor  woman  ! 
for  why  must  either  sorrows  or  sins  always  break  the 
smooth  stream  of  your  (and  our)  life  ?  and  why,  like  the 
Dnieper  stream,  must  it  have  thirteen  waterfalls  ere  it  falls 
into  the  Black  Sea  of  the  grave  ?  But  the  reason  why 
Lenette  revealed  her  affection  for  the  Schulrath,  almost 
without  the  convent-grating  of  the  breast,  more  particu- 
larly to-day,  was  because  she  felt  her  misery  to-day,  — 
her  poverty.  Stiefel  was  full  of  treasures  of  solid  gold ; 
Firmian  only  of  brazen  ones  (i.  e.  talents).  I  am  quite 
sure  she  would  have  loved  her  own  Siebenkäs,  whom 
she  loved  as  coldly  as  a  wife  before  marriage,  as  warmly 
as  a  bride  after  marriage,  if  he  had  only  had  something 
to  crumble  and  to  bite.  Hundreds  of  times  does  a  bride 
fancy  she  loves  her  betrothed,  while  it  is  only  in  wed- 
lock itself  that  the  jest  becomes  earnest,  —  for  good  me- 
tallic and  physiological  reasons.    Lenette  would  have 


28      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


remained  faithful  enough  to  the  Advocate  in  a  full  room 
and  full  kitchen,  filled  with  income  and  twelve  Herculean 
household  labors,  and  even  though  a  whole  learned 
wreath  of  Pelzstiefels  had  beset  her;  for  she  would 
hourly  have  thought  and  said  coldly ,•"  Much  obliged ! 
I  am  already  provided ! "  But,  as  it  was,  in  such  an 
empty  room  and  empty  kitchen,  the  chambers  of  her  wo- 
man's heart  became  full:  in  a  word,  no  good  comes  of 
it ;  for  a  woman's  soul  is  by  nature  a  beautiful  fresco- 
painting  painted  on  rooms,  tables,  clothes,  silver  waiters, 
and  upon  the  whole  domestic  establishment ;  and  conse- 
quently, all  the  splits  and  cracks  of  the  establishment 
become  so  many  in  herself.  A  woman  has  much  virtue, 
but  not  many  virtues ;  she  requires  a  confined  sphere  and 
social  forms,  without  the  flower-stick  of  which  these  pure 
white  flowers  trail  upon  the  dirt  of  the  border.  A  man 
can  be  a  citizen  of  the  world,  and  when  he  has  nothing 
else  to  take  in  his  arms,  he  can  press  his  bosom  upon  the 
whole  earth,  even  though  he  cannot  clasp  much  more  of 
it  than  what  is  contained  in  a  grave.  But  a  female 
citizen  of  the  world  is  a  giantess,  who  goes  through  the 
earth  without  having  anything  but  spectators,  and  without 
being  anything  but  a  dramatic  character. 

I  ought  to  have  painted  this  whole  evening  much 
more  circumstantially;  for,  on  this  evening,  after  so 
much  friction,  the  wheels  of  the  vis-a-vis  chariot  of  mar- 
riage began  to  smoke,  and  the  fire  of  jealousy  threatened 
to  consume  them.  It  is  with  jealousy  as  it  was  with  the 
ckicken-pox  of  Maria  Theresa,  which  suffered  this  prin- 
cess to  pass  uninjured  through  twenty  hospitals  full  of 
chicken-pox  patients,  and  first  attacked  her  beneath  the 
Hungarian  and  German  crown.     Siebenkäs  had  worn 


CHAPTER  IX. 


*9 


the  Kuhschnappel  crown  (of  the  bird)  for  some  weeks 
on  his  head. 

After  this  evening,  Stiefel,  who  every  day  took  greater 
pleasure  in  basking  in  the  rays  of  the  continually  ascend- 
ing sun,  Lenette,  came  much  oftener,  and  looked  upon 
himself  as  the  peace-maker,  —  not  as  the  peace-breaker. 

It  is  now  my  duty  to  paint  very  circumstantially  to  the 
Germans  the  last  and  most  important  day  of  this  year, 
the  thirty-first  of  December,  with  its  whole  background 
and  foreground,  and  all  its  accessories. 

Before  the  thirty-first  of  December  came  the  Christ- 
mas festivals,  which  were  to  be  gilded,  and  these  changed 
his  silver  age,  that  followed  upon  the  royal  shot,  into  a 
brazen  and  wooden  one.  The  money  came  to  an  end ; 
but  what  was  still  worse,  poor  Firmian  had  fretted  and 
laughed  himself  ill. 

A  man  who  has  always  passed  over  the  snares  and 
pitfalls  of  life  on  the  upper  wings  of  the  imagination  and 
on  the  lower  wings  of  humor  —  such  an  one,  when  he 
chances  to  be  impaled  upon  the  ripe  points  of  the  full- 
blown thistles,  above  whose  sky-blue  blossoms  and 
honey-vessels  he  had  formerly  hovered,  beats  about  him, 
bleeding,  hungry,  and  convulsively.  A  light-hearted, 
joyous  man  is  withered  by  the  first  sunstroke  of  grief. 
To  the  growing  heart-polypus  of  anxiety  we  must  also 
add  Firmian's  fervor  of  authorship  ;  for  he  wished  to 
have  his  selection  from  the  Devil's  Papers  soon  finished, 
in  order  to  support  his  life  and  his  lawsuit  on  the  profits. 
He  almost  sat  through  whole  nights,  and  chairs  ;  and  sat 
astride  upon  his  satirical  carving-bench  until  he  wrote 
himself  into  an  illness,  which  the  author  of  this  history 
also  caught,  probably  in  a  similar  manner,  that  is,  by  too 
great  liberality  to  the  learned  world. 


30     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


He  was  attacked,  like  myself,  by  a  sudden  interruption 
of  his  breathing  and  of  the  pulsations  of  his  heart,  fol- 
lowed by  a  blank,  as  if  the  spirit  of  life  were  all  passing 
away  ;  and  then  there  was  a  violent  rush  of  blood  to  the 
brain  ;  and  this  occurred  most  frequently  when  he  was 
at  his  literary  spinning-wheel  and  spool. 

Nevertheless,  not  a  soul  offers  either  of  us  authors 
a  farthing  of  indemnification  on  that  account.  It  would 
seem  that  authors  are  not  meant  to  go  down  to  posterity 
living,  but  merely  their  images,  —  as  delicate  trout  are 
boiled  before  they  are  sent  away.  The  sprig  of  laurel, 
like  the  lemon  in  the  mouth  of  the  wild  boar,  is  not  put 
into  ours  until  we  are  shot  and  dished  up.  It  would  do 
me  and  my  colleagues  good,  if  a  reader,  who  has  had  his 
heart  and  the  ears  of  his  heart  moved  by  us,  were  only 
to  say,  "  This  sweet  emotion  of  my  heart  was  not  pro- 
duced without  an  hypochondriac  palpitation  of  theirs." 
Many  a  head  is  enlightened  and  illumined  by  us,  with- 
out ever  considering  that  pain  in  our  own,  headache,  and 
disease  of  the  eyes,  is  all  the  reward  we  get  for  our  pains. 
Indeed,  the  reader  ought  to  interrupt  me  in  such  satires 
as  the  present,  and  boast,  "  However  much  pain  his 
satire  occasions  me  now,  he  suffered  more  himself;  for 
my  pain  at  least  is  only  mental."  Health  of  the  body 
only  runs  parallel  with  health  of  the  soul,  but  turns 
aside  from  learning,  too  active  an  imagination,  and  great 
depth  of  thought ;  all  which  belong  as  little  to  spiritual 
health,  as  stoutness,  a  good  runner's  legs,  and  good  fen- 
cing-arms, to  the  health  of  the  body.  I  often  wished 
that  all  souls  were  poured  into  their  bodies,  or  bottles, 
like  the  Pyrmont  water.  Its  best  spirit  is  first  suffered 
to  escape,  otherwise  the  bottles  would  burst.    But,  if 


CHAPTER  IX. 


3» 


we  are  to  believe  Gorani,  it  seems  this  precaution  is 
adopted  only  with  the  souls  of  the  college  of  cardinals, 
many  of  the  chapters  of  cathedrals,  and  some  others, 
whose  extraordinary  spirit,  which  would  otherwise  have 
<burst  their  bodies,  is  first  allowed  to  evaporate  before 
they  are  bottled  and,  sent  upon  the  earth.  The  bottles 
now  last  seventy  or  eighty  years  perfectly  well. 

Thus,  sick  at  heart,  with  a  sick  soul,  and  without 
money,  Siebenkäs  began  the  last  day  of  the  year.  The 
day  itself  had  donned  its  best  summer  robe,  namely,  a 
dress  of  Berlin  blue,  and  looked  as  sky-blue  as  Crisna, 
or  as  Graham's  new  sect,  or  as  the  Jews  in  Persia.  It 
had  ordered  the  balloon-stove  of  the  sun  to  be  heated ; 
and  the  snow  upon  the  finely  candied  earth,  like  that 
upon  ornamental  dishes  artificially  frosted,  melted  into 
winter-green  as  soon  as  the  sphere  was  carried  before 
the  oven.  The  year  seemed  to  take  leave  of  Time  with 
warmth,  and  with  a  cheerfulness  full  of  joyous  drops. 
Firmian  longed  to  run  out  and  sun  himself  upon  the 
moist  green ;  but  he  was  first  obliged  to  review  Pro- 
fessor Lang  of  Baireuth. 

He  composed  his  reviews,  as  others  their  prayers, 
only  in  the  hour  of  need.  It  was  the  water-carrying  of 
the  Athenian,  that  he  might  afterwards  devote  himself 
to  the  study  of  his  favorite  science  without  suffering 
hunger.  In  his  reviews  he  sheathed  his  satirical  bee's- 
sting,  and  drew  the  mild  clothing  of  his  criticisms  only 
out  of  his  soft  wax-and-honey  stomach.  "  Little  au- 
thors," said  he,  "are  always  better,  and  great  ones 
worse,  than  their  works.  Why  am  I  to  pardon  moral 
faults  —  self-conceit,  for  instance  —  in  a  genius,  and  not 
in  a  dunce  ?    If  anything,  I  ought  not  to  pardon  it  in 


32      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


the  former.  Unmerited  poverty  and  ugliness  are  not 
deserving  of  our  mockery,  and  merited  just  as  little 
(though  in  this  Cicero  is  against  me)  ;  for  a  moral  fault, 
and  consequently  its  punishment,  cannot  become  greater 
because  of  the  same  fortuitous  physical  consequence^ 
which  sometimes  follows,  and  sometimes  does  not.  Is 
an  extravagant  person,  who  chances  to  become  impov- 
erished, deserving  of  a  greater  punishment  than  one 
who  does  not  become  so  ?    If  anything,  the  reverse." 

If  this  be  applied  to  bad  authors,  whose  worthlessness 
is  concealed  from  themselves  by  their  own  impenetrable 
self-conceit,  and  upon  whose  innocent  hearts  the  critic 
pours  forth  all  the  wrath  that  is  due  to  their  guilty  heads, 
it  may  still  be  permitted,  indeed,  to  employ  bitter  irony 
against  the  race,  but  with  the  individual  we  should  deal 
gently.  I  think  it  would  be  the  gold-test  of  a  perfect 
scholar  to  give  him  a  bad  but  celebrated  book  to  review. 

I  will  allow  myself  to  be  reviewed  by  Dr.  Merkel  for 
all  eternity,  if  I  digress  again  in  this  chapter.  Firmian 
worked  somewhat  hastily  at  the  review  of  Lang's  pro- 
gramme :  "  Praemissa  historiae  superintendentium  gene- 
ralium  Barhuti  non  specialium  continuatione  xx."  It 
was  necessary  that  he  should  earn  a  few  dollars,  and  yet 
he  wished  to  go  out  walking  a  little  on  this  warm, 
motherly  day.  Lenette  had  already  celebrated  the  pre- 
liminary festival  of  cleansing  the  day  before,  Thursday 
(the  new  year  began  on  Saturday)  ;  for  she  now  always 
washed  more  and  more  in  advance  ;  but  on  this  day  she 
celebrated  in  addition  the  gleaning  of  the  furniture,  and 
administered  a  purgative  to  the  apartment  to  clear  away 
all  impurities.  She  looked  into  the  index  expurgandorum, 
—  she  drove  everything  that  had  wooden  legs  into  the 


CHAPTER  IX. 


33 


water,  and  waded  after  them  with  balls  of  soap,  —  in 
short,  she  paddled  and  dabbled  for  once  in  this  Levitical 
cleansing  of  the  room  quite  in  her  moist,  warm  element. 
Siebenkäs  sat  upright  in  the  purgatory  fire,  and  soon  be- 
gan to  emit  a  smell  of  burning. 

He  was  madder  than  usual  to-day,  as  it  was  :  in  the 
first  place,  he  had  resolved  to  pawn  the  striped-calico 
gown,  even  though  whole  nunneries  were  to  cry  out 
against  it ;  and  he  foresaw,  therefore,  that  he  would  have 
to  grow  unusually  warm.  He  had  taken  the  resolution 
to  pawn  the  calico  gown  to-day,  (and  this  was  the  second 
reason  why  he  was  madder  than  usual,)  because  he  was 
vexed  that  their  good  days  were  all  gone  again,  and  that 
their  music  of  the  spheres  had  been  spoiled  by  Lenette's 
gloomy  miserere. 

"  Wife,"  said  he,  "  I  am  reviewing  for  money !  " 

She  scraped  on. 

"  I  have  Professor  Lang  open  before  me,  at  the  sev- 
enth chapter,  in  which  he  trea^  of  the  sixth  General  Su- 
perintendent of  Baireuth,  Stockfleth." 

She  was  about  to  leave  off  in  a  few  minutes  ;  yet  she 
could  not  leave  off  at  once.  Women  love  to  be  dilatory ; 
and  therefore  they  come  into  the  world  later  than  boys.  . 

"  The  Messenger  of  the  Gods  should  have  reviewed 
this  speech,"  continued  Firmian,  with  assumed  coolness, 
"half  a  year  ago.  The  Messenger  must  not  canonize, 
like  the  general  German  Library  and  the  Pope,  a  hun- 
dred years  after  date." 

Had  he  only  been  able  to  maintain  his  assumed  cool- 
ness one  minute  longer,  Lenette  would  have  ceased  buzz- 
ing ;  but  he  could  not. 

"  The  Devil  take  me,  and  you,  and  the  Messenger  of 

VOL.  II.  2*  c 


34     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

the  Gods ! "  cried  he,  starting  up  and  throwing  away  his 
pen.  "  I  don't  know,"  he  continued,  collected  and  sub- 
dued, and  he  sat  down  as  unnerved  and  weak  as  though 
he  were  stuck  all  over  with  cupping-glasses,  —  "I  don't 
know,"  said  he,  "  what  I  am  translating,  and  whether  I 
write  Stockfleth  or  Lang.  It  is  a  pity  an  Advocate  is 
not  as  deaf  as  a  judge :  if  I  were  deaf,  I  should  be  ex- 
empt from  torture.  Do  you  know  how  many  people  it 
requires,  according  to  law,  to  constitute  a  riot  ?  •  Either 
ten,  or  you  alone  in  your  musical  washing-academy." 

He  was  less  inclined  to  be  reasonable  than  to  resemble 
the  Spanish  inn-keepers,  who  always  put  the  noise  made 
by  their  guests  into  the  bill.  She  had  had  her  will,  and 
therefore  she  was  silent  both  in  word  and  deed. 

He  finished  his  review  in  the  forenoon,  and  despatched 
it  to  the  president  Stiefel.  The  latter  wrote  back  word 
that  he  would  come  in  the  evening  and  bring  him  the  fee 
for  it  in  person  ;  for  he  now  seized  every  opportunity  of 
paying  a  visit.  During  &nner,  Firmian,  in  whose  head 
the  sultry,  stinking  fog  of  ill-humor  would  not  fall,  said : 
"  I  can't  comprehend  how  it  is  you  have  so  little  love  of 
order  and  cleanliness.  Of  the  two,  it  would  be  better 
J  l  int  you  exceeded  on  the  side  of  cleanliness  rather  than 
on  the  contrary.  The  people  say,  it  is  a  pity  that  such 
an  orderly  man  as  the  Advocate  has  such  a  disorderly 
wife." 

She  always  opposed  good  solid  reasons  to  his  irony, 
even  though  she  knew  it  to  be  such.  He  could  never 
bring  her  to  relish  his  jests,  instead  of  contradicting 
them,  or  to  join  in  his  ridicule  of  society.  Thus  a  wo- 
man abandons  her  opinion  the  moment  her  husband 
adopts  it;  even  in  church  the  women  sing  an  octave 


CHAPTER  IX. 


35 


higher  than  the  men,  in  order  not  to  agree  with  them  in 
anything. 

In  the  afternoon  the  great  hour  approached  in  which 
the  ostracism  or  banishment  of  the  striped  calico  from 
land  and  house  was  at  length  to  take  place,  —  the  last 
and  greatest  deed  of  the  year  1785.  He  was  sick  of 
this  signal  for  quarrelling,  —  this  hostile  red  ensign  of 
Timur  and  Mahomet,  —  this  Ziska's  skin,  which  always 
set  them  by  the  ears.  He  would  much  rather  the  calico 
had  been  stolen,  if  it  was  only  to  get  rid  of  the  tiresome, 
threadbare  thought  about  the  miserable  rag.  He  did 
not  hurry  himself,  but  supported  his  petition  with  all 
the  eloquence  which  a  parliamentary  speaker  possesses 
—  at  home.  He  let  her  guess  what  was  the  greatest 
favor  she  could  accord  him  wherewith  to  conclude  the 
year.  He  said  that  under  the  same  roof  with  him  dwelt 
an  hereditary  enemy  and  antichrist,  —  a  dragon,  —  tares 
sown  among  his  wheat  by  the  evil  enemy,  which  it  stood 
in  her  power  to  root  out  if  she.  pleased.  At  length,  with 
a  chiaro  oscuro  sorrow,  he  drew  the  striped  calico  out  of 
the  drawer. 

"  This,"  said  he,  "  is  the  bird  of  prey  which  pursues 
me,  —  the  net  which  the  Devil  lays  for  me,  —  his  sheep- 
skin, —  my  martyr-frock,  —  my  Casern's  slipper  !  Dear- 
est, do  me  but  this  one  favor,  and  pawn  it !  Don't  answer 
me  yet,"  said  he,  covering  her  lips  gently  with  his  hand. 
"  Consider  first  what  a  foolish  village  did,  whose  only 
blacksmith  was  to'  be  hanged.  It  proposed  to  offer  as  a 
substitute  to  the  gallows  a  few  innocent  tailors,  who  could 
better  be  spared;  and  you,  as  a  wiser  person,  should 
rather  give  up  the  simple  work  of  the  tailor,  since  we 
can  never  use  the  mourning  calico  in  our  lifetime,  than 


36      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


metal  utensils,  from  which  we  eat  daily.  But  now  say 
what  you  think,  dear." 

"  I  have  long  remarked,"  said  she,  "  that  you  are  en- 
deavoring to  deprive  me  of  my  mourning-gown  ;  but  I 
won't  give  it.  It  is  just  as  if  I  were  to  say  to  you,  Fir- 
mian,  pawn  your  watch  ! " 

Perhaps  men  become  accustomed  to  command  impe- 
riously without  giving  any  reasons,  because  the  latter  are 
of  so  little  avail,  and  serve  rather  to  strengthen  opposi- 
tion than  to  break  it  down. 

"  The  Devil !  "  said  he.  "  I  have  now  had  enough  of 
it.  I  am  not  a  turkey  or  a  bull,  that  I  should  forever 
get  enraged  at  the  colored  rag.  It  shall  be  pawned 
to-day,  as  sure  as  my  name  is  Siebenkäs." 

"  Your  name  is  also  Leibgeber,"  said  she. 

"The  Devil  take  me,  if  the  calico  remains  in  the 
house  ! "  said  he. 

She  now  began  to  weep  and  wail  over  her  hard  fate, 
which  left  her  nothing,  not  even  her  dress.  Thoughtless 
tears  often  fall  into  a  man's  boiling  heart,  like  other  drops 
of  water  into  melted  bubbling  copper.  The  liquid  mass 
bursts  asunder  with  a  crash. 

"  Heavenly,  good,  gentle  devil,"  said  he,  "  come  in  and 
break  my  neck !  May  God  be  merciful  to  such  a  wo- 
man! Well,  keep  your  calico,  then,  and  your  rag  of 
hunger ;  but  I  give  you  my  word  of  honor,  that  I  will  be 
hanged,  if  I  don't  this  very  day  clap  the  old  stag's  horns, 
left  me  by  my  father,  on  my  head,  like  a  condemned 
poacher,  and  carry  them  for  sale  through  the  whole 
town  in  broad  daylight,  how  ridiculous  soever  it  may  ap- 
pear to  all  the  Kuhschnapplers,  and  I  will  only  say  you 
have  put  them  on  my  head.  This  is  what  I  '11  do,  by  the 
Devil!" 


CHAPTER  IX. 


3  7 


He  went  up  to  the  window,  grinding  his  teeth,  and 
gazed  vacantly  upon  the  street.  A  village  funeral  was 
passing  by  below.  The  bier  was  a  shoulder,  and  upon  it 
tottered  a  child's  rude  coffin. 

This  sight  is  touching  in  itself,  when  we  reflect  on  a 
little  hidden  human  creature,  which  has  passed  from  the 
foetus-slumber  into  the  sleep  of  death,  out  of  the  amnios- 
skin  of  this  world  into  the  shroud,  the  amnios-skin  of  the 
next ;  whose  eyes  close  upon  the  beaming  earth  without 
having  seen  its  parents,  who  gaze  after  it  with  moist 
eyes ;  who  was  loved  without  loving  ;  whose  little  tongue 
decays  ere  it  has  spoken,  even  as  his  face  without  having 
smiled  upon  our  orb  of  contradictions.  The  cut-off  buds 
of  earth  will  find  some  stem  on  which  Fate  will  ingraft 
them ;  these  flowers,  which,  like  some  others,  fold  them- 
selves to  sleep  in  the  morning-hour,  will  find  a  morning- 
sun  to  awaken  them. 

When  Firmian  beheld  this  cold,  shrouded  child  pass  by, 
at  the  moment  when  he  was  disputing  about  the  mourning- 
dress,  which  was  to  mourn  for  him,  —  at  this  moment, 
when  the  last  drops  of  the  year  were  flowing  away,  and 
when,  owing  to  the  fainting  fits  of  his  heart,  he  dared 
scarcely  hope  to  witness  the  completion  of  another, 
he  heard,  in  the  midst  of  his  many  sorrows,  the  river 
of  death,  as  it  were,  murmuring  hollowly  beneath  his 
feet,  —  so  the  Chinese  undermine  the  ground  of  their 
gardens  with  rushing  streams,  —  and  the  thin  crust  of  ice 
On  which  he  stood  seemed  as  if  about  to  break  down  with 
him,  and  hurl  him  into  the  wintry  waves.  He  was  inex- 
pressibly touched,  and  said  to  Lenette,  — 

"  Perhaps  you  are  right,  after  all,  to  keep  the  mourn- 
ing-gown, and  you  have  a  presentiment  of  my  death.  Do 


38      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


as  you  please  ;  I  will  not  further  imbitter  this  last  day 
of  December,  since  I  don't  know  but  what  it  is  the  last 
for  me  in  another  sense,  nor  but  what  in  another  year 
I  shall  be  nearer  to  the  poor  infant  than  to  you.  I  am 
now  going  out  to  take  a  walk." 

Lenette  was  surprised  and  silent.  He  withdrew  has- 
tily, ere  she  could  answer. 

His  absence  must  plead  best  for  him.  All  men  are 
better  than  their  passions,  that  is,  their  bad  ones,  for  all 
are  likewise  worse  than  their  noble  ones ;  and  if  we  al- 
low the  former  an  hour  to  allay  themselves,  we  have  won 
something  better  than  our  cause,  —  our  opponent.  How- 
ever, he  left  Lenette  a  subject  for  serious  reflection,  in 
his  word  of  honor  and  the  stag's  horns. 

I  have  already  mentioned,  that  the  winter  lay  upon 
the  earth,  naked,  without  the  lilac  and  chrism-cloth  of 
snow,  beside  the  dry,  withered  mummy  of  the  bygone 
summer. 

With  an  unsatisfied  feeling  Firmian  gazed  upon  the 
naked  fields,  over  which  fhe  cradle-quilt  of  snow  and  the 
milky  flowers  of  frost  were  yet  to  be  thrown,  and  down 
upon  the  brooks,  which  were  to  be  struck  palsied  and 
speechless.  Warm,  bright  days  at  the  close  of  Decem- 
ber inspire  us  with  a  gentle  melancholy,  in  which  there 
are  four  or  five  more  bitter  drops  than  in  the  melancholy 
inspired  by  the  close  of  summer. 

Until  twelve  o'clock  at  night  and  until  the  thirty-first 
of  the  twelfth  month,  the  wintry  and  night-picture  of  dis- 
solution oppresses  us  ;  but  already  at  one  o'clock  after 
midnight  and  on  the  first  of  January,  living  morning- 
breezes  waft  the  clouds  away  from  the  soul,  and  we  look 
towards  the  dark,  pure  morning  blue,  and  towards  the 
rise  of  the  star  of  morning  and  of  spring. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


39 


On  such  a  December  day  the  dun,  motionless  world 
of  frozen,  bloodless  plants  around  us,  the  insect-cabinets 
covered  with  earth,  which  have  fallen  beneath  them,  and 
the  rafters  of  naked,  wrinkled,  withered  trees,  —  all  these 
inspire  us  with  a  sentiment  of  anxiety.  The  December 
sun,  which  hangs  at  mid-day  as  low  down  as  the  June 
sun  in  the  evening,  throws  a  ghastly  hue  of  death,  like 
burning  spirits  of  wine,  over  the  faded,  pale  meadows, 
and  everywhere,  as  on  an  evening  of  nature  or  of  the 
year,  long,  giant  shadows  sleep,  or  creep  along  as  if  they 
were  the  ruins  and  ashes  of  the  equally  long  nights. 
The  glistening  snow,  on  the  contrary,  covers  the  bloom- 
ing earth  beneath  us,  as  though  it  were  but  a  few  feet 
of  fog ;  the  blue  foreground  of  spring,  the  pure  dark 
heaven,  bends  closely  over  us,  and  the  white  earth  seems 
to  be  a  white  moon,  whose  sparkling  fields  of  ice  melt 
into  dark  waving  fields  of  flowers  as  soon  as  we  approach 
nearer. 

Sad  at  heart  was  our  poor  Firmian  on  this  yellow, 
desolate  fireplace  of  nature.  The  daily  recurring  inter- 
ruption of  the  pulsation  of  his  heart  seemed  to  him  to 
be  that  stillness  and  silence  of  the  storm-glass  in  his 
bosom,  which  denotes  a  speedy  cessation  of  the  thunder, 
and  the  dissolution  of  the  tempest-clouds  of  life.  He 
attributed  the  stopping  of  his  clock-work  to  a  peg  that 
had  fallen  between  the  wheels,  a  heart-polypus,  and  his 
vertigo  to  an  approaching  apoplexy.  This  day  was  the 
three  hundred  and  sixty-fifth  act  of  the  year,  and  his 
curtain  was  about  to  fall.  To  what  should  this  lead  him, 
but  to  make  gloomy  comparisons  with  his  own  epilogue 
and  the  winter  solstice  of  his  shortened,  wasted  life  ? 

The  weeping  image  of  his  Lenette  now  placed  itself 


40      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


before  his  forgiving  departing  soul,  and  he  thought :  "  She 
is  not  in  the  right  indeed  ;  but  I  will  yield  to  her,  since 
we  have  not  long  to  dwell  together.  I  am  willing,  for 
her  sake,  that  my  arms  shall  fall  away  from  her  in  decay, 
and  that  her  friend  shall  take  her  into  his." 

He  ascended  the  scaffold  of  blood  and  of  sorrow  on 
which  his  friend  Henry  had  ended  his  embrace.  From 
this  eminence,  as  often  as  his  heart  was  heavy,  his  glance 
pursued  the  path  of  Leibgeber  as  far  as  the  mountains  ; 
but  to-day  his  eyes  were  moister  than  usual,  because  he 
no  longer  hoped  to  see  the  spring.  This  height  was  to 
him  the  hill  which  the  Emperor  Hadrian  permitted  the 
Jews  to  ascend  twice  in  the  year,  that  they  might  gaze 
towards  the  ruins  of  the  holy  city,  and  bewail  what  they 
might  visit  no  more.*  The  sun  closed  the  old  year  with 
shadows  ;  and  when  those  stars  arose  in  the  evening, 
which  in  the  spring  adorned  the  morning,  Fate  broke 
the  most  beautiful  liana  boughs  full  of  blossoms  from 
his  spirit,  and  pure  water  flowed  from  them. 

"  I  shall  see  nothing  of  the  future  spring,"  thought 
he,  "  but  its  blue,  which  in  it,  as  in  enamel  painting,  is 
soonest  finished." 

In  general  his  heart,  educated  to  love,  always  sought 
repose  from  his  satires,  the  dryness  of  business,  and  some- 
times from  Lenette's  coldness,  upon  the  heart  of  the 
eternal,  warm,  embracing  goddess,  Nature.  Hither,  into 
the  free,  unveiled,  blooming  universe,  beneath  the  great 
heaven,  he  loved  to  bring  his  sighs  and  his  grief,  —  and 
in  this  garden,  even  as  the  Jews  in  small  ones,  he  made 
all  his  graves.    And  when  man  forsakes  us  and  wounds 

*  Justin.  Vide  Bastholm's  Jewish  History,  translated  from  tho 
Danish,  1785. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


4« 


us,  the  heaven,  the  earth,  and  the  little  blooming  tree, 
still  ever  stretch  forth  their  arms  and  take  the  suf- 
ferer in  their  embrace,  and  the  flowers  nestle  up  to  our 
wounded  bosoms,  and  the  rills  mingle  with  our*  tears,  and 
the  breezes  flow  cooling  along  with  our  sighs.  A  high 
Angel  stirs  and  infuses  spirit  into  the  ocean-pool  of  Be- 
thesda,  and  we  dive  with  our  thorns  and  stings  beneath 
its  warm  billows,  and  rise  healed  and  renovated,  and  with 
our  spasms  allayed,  out  of  the  water  of  life. 

Firmian  returned  slowly,  with  a  heart  full  of  recon- 
ciliation, and  with  eyes  which  he  no  longer  dried  in  the 
dark.  He  repeated  over  to  himself  all  he  could  urge  in 
Lenette's  excuse.  He  sought  to  win  himself  over  to  her 
side  by  reflecting,  that  she  could  not,  like  himself,  take 
Minerva's  helmet,  the  parachute  of  thought,  philosophy, 
and  authorship,  against  the  rubs  and  stones  of  life.  He 
again  resolved  to  be  as  polite  to  her  as  to  a  stranger  * 
(he  had  already  taken  the  same  resolution  a  hundred 
times  before)  ;  he  even  armed  himself  with  the  fly-net  or 
shirt-of-mail  of  Patience,  in  case  on  his  return  he  should 
really  find  the  striped  calico  safe  at  home.  This  is  the 
way  of  man ;  he  closes  his  ears  with  both  hands,  in 
order  to  enjoy  the  siesta  of  mental  repose  ;  and  thus  the 

*  The  husband  should  rather  act  the  lover,  and  the  lover  the  hus- 
band. It  is  not  to  be  described  what  a  soothing  influence  little  acts 
of  politeness  and  innocent  flattery  exercise  upon  those  who  expect 
and  exact  none,  —  wives,  sisters,  relations  j  even  though  they  look 
upon  the  politeness  to  be  what  it  is.  We  ought  to  apply  this  soften- 
ing salve  for  our  rough,  chapped  lips  the  whole  day  long,  even  though 
we  have  only  two  or  three  words  to  speak ;  and  we  should  have  a 
similar  hand-ointment  in  action.  I  trust  I  shall  keep  my  resolution 
not  to  flatter  any  woman,  —  not  even  my  own  wife ;  but  four  and  a 
half  months  after  my  marriage  I  shall  begin  to  flatter  her,  and  con- 
tinue to  do  so  all  my  life  after.  • 


42      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


soul  in  passion  reflects  the  sunshine  of  truth,  like  mir- 
rors or  smooth  water,  with  one  flashing  point  alone,  while 
round  the  focus  of  reflection  the  surface  is  darkened  by 
deeper  shallows. 

But  how  differently  all  fell  out !  Stiefel  came  forward 
to  meet  him  full  of  gravity  and  pomp,  and  with  a 
church-visitation-face  full  of  inquisitorial  sermons.  Le- 
nette  scarcely  raised  her  swollen  eyeballs  towards  the 
windward  of  his  entrance.  Stiefel  held  the  mien-strings 
of  his  face  tight,  lest  it  should  relax  before  the  friendly, 
softened  countenance  of  Firmian,  and  commenced  thus :  — 

"  Mr.  Advocate  of  the  Poor !  I  came  to  bring  the 
money  for  the  review  of  Lang,  but  friendship  demands 
of  me  something  more  important,  —  to  exhort  you  to  be- 
have to  your  poor  wife  here  as  a  true  Christian  man  to 
a  true  Christian  woman,  or  still  better,"  said  he.  "  But 
what  is  it  all  about,  Mistress  ?  "  She  kept  an  embar- 
rassed silence.  She  had  asked  aid  and  counsel  from  the 
Schulrath  in  the  calico  affair  rather  for  the  sake  of  tell- 
ing it  than  for  any  assistance  he  might  render  ;  for,  just 
before  the  Schulrath  had  surprised  her  in  the  midst  of 
the  bitterest  flow  of  her  tears,  she  had,  in  fact,  sent  out 
the  striped,  prickly  caterpillar-skin  to  be  pawned,  be- 
cause —  knowing  how  her  husband  kept  his  word,  and 
his  indifference  to  appearance,  which  was  most  exces- 
sive when  he  was  most  in  need  —  she  was  sure,  from  his 
having  given  his  word  of  honor,  that  he  would  not 
hesitate  to  carry  the  ridiculous  horns  on  his  head  for 
sale  through  the  whole  place.  Perhaps  she  would  have 
wept  and  kept  silence  before  the  healer  of  souls,  if  she 
had  had  her  own  will  and  her  gown,  —  but  having  sacri- 
ficed both,  she  needed  fbme  compensation  or  revenge. 


CHAPTER  IX.  43 

At  first,  she  only  counted  up  her  grievances  to  him  in 
unknown  numbers  ;  but,  on  his  pressing  her  further,  her 
bursting  heart  overflowed,  and  all  her  sorrows  streamed 
out.  Stiefel,  contrary  to  the  law  of  equity  aria*  of  many 
universities,  always  considered  the  plaintiff  in  the  right, 
because  he  spoke  first.  Most  men  mistake  the  impar- 
tiality of  their  hearts  for  impartiality  of  head.  Stiefel 
declared  he  would  speak  to  her  husband  as  he  deserved, 
and  that  the  calico  should  come  back  this  very  day. 

This  confessor  jingled  his  bunch  of  keys  to  bind  and 
unloose  before  the  Advocate,  and  related  to  the  husband 
the  general  confession  of  the  wife,  and  then  the  pawning 
of  the  gown. 

If  two  different  actions  are  to  be  told  of  a  person,  — 
the  one  vexatious,  the  other  agreeable,  —  the  effect  de- 
pends upon  which  of  the  two  is  related  first.  The  first 
gives  the  ground-tint  to  the  mind,  and  the  last  painted 
becomes  but  a  secondary  figure,  and  is  thrown  into  the 
shade. 

Firmian  should  have  heard  of  the  pawning  of  the 
gown  in  the  street,  and  of  her  telltale  babbling  in  the 
room  ;  but,  as  it  happened,  the  Devil  was  in  it.  "  What ! " 
(such  were,  if  not  his  thoughts,  at  least  his  feelings,)  "  she 
makes  my  rival  her  confidant  and  my  judge.  I  bring 
back  a  reconciled  spirit  to  her,  and  she  wounds  it  anew,  ^ 
and  thus  vexes  me  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  with  her 
confounded  babbling ! " 

By  this  last  expression  his  feelings  meant  something 
which  the  reader  does  not  yet  understand  ;  for  I  have  rftt 
yet  related  that  Lenette  had  the  bad  habit  of  being  ill 
bred,  and  consequently  made  common  people  of  her  own 
sex  —  such,  for  instance,  as  the  bookbinder's  wife  —  re- 


44     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


ceivers  of  her  secret  thoughts  and  electric  dischargers  of 
her  little  storms  ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  she  took  it  ill 
in  her  husband,  not  indeed  that  he  let  servants,  maids, 
and  plebeians  into  his  own  secrets,  for  that  he  never  did, 
but  that  he  entered  into  theirs. 

Stiefel,  according  to  the  custom  of  all  people  without 
tact,  who  will  always  teach  and  never  take  anything  for 
granted,  now  read  from  his  pulpit  a  long  theological 
funeral  oration  upon  the  love  of  Christian  husbands  and 
wives,  and  ended  by  insisting  on  the  recall  of  the  calico, 
his  Necker,  so  to  say.  Firmian  was  irritated  by  this 
speech,  more  particularly  because  his  wife  thought  he 
had  no  religion,  or  at  least  not  so  much  as  Stiefel. 

"  I  recollect,"  said  he,  "  having  read  in  the  French 
history,  that  the  first  prince  of  the  blood,  Gaston,  made 
some  trifling  manifestations  of  war  against  his  brother, 
and  that  in  the  compact  of  peace  that  was  afterwards 
drawn  up,  he  promised,  in  a  special  clause,  to  love  the 
Cardinal  Richelieu.  This  clause,  that  a  married  pair 
should  love  one  another,  should  by  all  means  form  a 
secret  separate  article  in  all  marriage-contracts,  since 
love  indeed  is  at  fiFst,  like  Adam,  eternal  and  immortal, 
but  afterwards  becomes  mortal,  owing  to  the  snake's 
deceit :  —  but  as  regards  the  calico,  let  us  all  thank 
God  that  the  apple  of  discord  is  thrown  out  of  the 
house." 

Stiefel,  in  order  to  make  a  sacrifice  and  burnt-offering 
to  Lenette,  insisted  on  the  recall  of  the  gown  the  more 
<padily  because  Firmian's  gentle  compliance  in  little  sac- 
rifices and  services  up  to  this  period  had  inspired  him 
with  the  conceit  of  his  overwhelming  authority.  The 
excited  husband  said,  "  Let  us  drop  the  subject." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


+  5 


"No,"  said  Stiefel,  "we  will  do  so  presently.  Now, 
before  everything  else,  I  demand  that  the  woman  shall 
have  her  gown." 

"  Mr.  Schulrath,  that  cannot  be." 

"I  will  advance  you,"  said  Stiefel,  in  the  warmest 
indignation  at  such  a  marked  disobedience,  "as  much 
money  as  you  require." 

It  was  now  still  more  impossible  for  the  Advocate  to 
retract.    He  shook  his  head  eighty  times ! 

"  Either  you  or  I  are  quite  demented,"  said  Stiefel. 
"  I  will  count  up  the  reasons  once  more." 

"  In  former  times,"  answered  Firmian,  "  advocates 
were  so  fortunate  as  to  have  domestic  chaplains  ;  but 
none  could  be  converted,  therefore  they  are  no  longer 
preached  to." 

Lenette  wept  more  bitterly.  Stiefel,  in  consequence, 
was  more  violent  and  loud.  In  the  first  moment  of  em- 
barrassment at  the  failure  of  his  expectations,  he  felt 
himself  obliged  to  put  his  request  in  a  still  ruder  form,  — 
his  opponent  was  obliged  to  oppose  a  still  stronger  re- 
sistance. 

Stiefel  was  a  pedant ;  and  no  one  has  a  more  barefaced 
blind  self-conceit  than  such  a  character,  —  an  unceasing 
wind,  as  it  were,  which  blows  from  all  the  thirty-two 
quarters  of  the  compass  (for  a  pedant  even  displays  his 
person). 

Stiefel,  like  a  good  dramatist,  must  needs  sustain  his 
character  throughout,  and  say  "  either,"  "  or,"  Mr.  Advo- 
cate of  the  Poor  !  "  Either  the  mourning-gown  comes 
back,  or  I  remain  away  —  aut  —  aut.  My  visits,  to  be 
sure,  cannot  be  of  much  consequence  ;  but  I  set  a  small 
price  upon  them  for  your  wife's  sake." 


46      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

Firmian,  doubly  indignant,  first  at  the  arrogant  unpo- 
liteness  of  such  a  vain  alternative  ;  and,  secondly,  at  the 
low  market-price  for  which  the  Schulrath  renounced  their 
meeting,  was  obliged  to  answer,  "  No  one  can  henceforth 
determine  but  yourself,  —  not  I.  It  is  very  easy  for  you, 
Mr.  Schulrath,  to  part  from  us,  and  you  could  do  other- 
wise ;  but  it  is  hard  for  me,  and  I  cannot  do  otherwise." 

Stiefel,  from  whose  head  the  waxen  laurel-wreath  was 
melted  in  the  presence  of  his  beloved,  could  now  do  noth- 
ing but  depart,  —  but  wTith  three  sharp,  bitter  feelings,  — 
for  his  ambition  was  humbled,  his  beloved  wept,  and  his 
friend  rebelled  and  braved  him. 

And  when  the  Schulrath  had  taken  his  eternal  farewell, 
a  terrible  sorrow  stood  expressed  in  the  eyes  of  Lenette, 
which  I  still  see,  in  all  its  rigidity,  before  me  ;  though  it 
has  long  since  been  covered  by  the  hand  of  the  Past. 
She  could  not  accompany  her  departing  friend  down  stairs 
as  usual,  but  retired  alone,  with  her  bursting,  breaking 
heart,  into  the  unlighted  chamber. 

Firmian's  heart  laid  aside  its  hardness,  but  not  its  cold- 
ness, on  beholding  the  fixed,  dry  grief  of  his  wife  at  the 
destruction  of  all  her  little  plans  and  joys  ;  and  he  did  not 
add  to  her  pain  by  a  single  reproach.  "You  see,"  he 
merely  said,  "  it  is  not  my  fault  that  the  Schulrath  returns 
no  more :  he  ought  not  to  have  heard  anything.  Now  it 
is  all  over." 

She  made  no  answer.  The  hornet's  sting,  which 
makes  a  threefold  wound,  or  the  dagger  thrust  into  her 
by  a  revengeful  Italian,  still  remained  fixed  in  the  wound, 
which  therefore  could  not  bleed.  Thou  poor  one  !  thou 
hast  deprived  thyself  of  much.  But  yet  Firmian  did  not 
at  all  repent.    He,  the  mildest  and  most  indulgent  man 


CHAPTER  IX. 


47 


under  the  sun,  angrily  ruffled  up  all  his  soft  feathers 
against  any  compulsion,  especially  if  it  were  at  th^pcost 
of  his  honor.  He  accepted  presents  ;  but  only  from  his 
Leibgeber,  or  from  others  in  the  warmest  hour  of  soul- 
communion  :  and  he  and  his  friend  were  of  one  mind,  — 
that,  hi  friendship,  not  only  was  a  red  heller  *  equivalent 
to  a  piece  of  gold,  but  a  piece  of  gold  to  a  heller,  and  that 
the  greatest  gift  should  be  accepted  as  readily  as  the 
smallest ;  therefore  he  reckoned  it  as  part  of  the  unac- 
knowledged blessedness  of  children,  that  they  can  receive 
presents  without  shame. 

In  a  mental  stupor,  he  seated  himself  in  his  grand- 
father's arm-chair,  and  covered  his  eyes  with  his  hand. 
The  mist  now  arose  from  the  future,  and  revealed  a  wide, 
dreary  land,  full  of  burnt  patches,  of  withered  bushes,  and 
of  the  skeletons  of  animals  in  the  sand.  He  saw  that  the 
cleft,  or  fall  of  earth,  which  severed  his  heart  from  hers, 
would  gape  ever  wider  asunder  ;  he  saw  it  all  so  plainly 
and  so  cheerlessly  !  His  old  beautiful  love  would  never 
return  ;  Lenette  would  never  lay  aside  her  obstinacy,  her 
whims,  her  habits,  —  the  narrow  limits  of  her  heart  and 
head  would  remain  fixed  forever.  She  would  as  little 
learn  to  understand  him  as  to  love  him  ;  while  her  disin- 
clination to  him,  on  the  contrary,  would  grow  with  the 
absence  of  his  friend,  and,  with  both,  her  love  to  the  lat- 
ter, whose  wealth,  gravity,  religiousness,  and  attachment 
cut  the  sharp  bond  of  wedlock  asunder  by  a  more  complex 
and  softer  tie. 

He  gazed  sadly  into  long  silent  days,  full  of  hidden 
sighs  and  hostile  accusations. 

Lenette  worked  silently  in  her  chamber  ;    for  her 
*  The  smallest  coin.  —  Tr. 


48      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


wounded  heart  shrunk  from  words  and  looks  as  from  cold, 
cruqjpvinds. 

It  was  already  quite  dark,  —  she  brought  no  light. 
All  at  once  a  wandering  female  minstrel  with  her  harp, 
and  her  little  child  with  a  flute,  commenced  playing  in  the 
house  below.  It  seemed  to  our  friend  as  if  his  full,  burst- 
ing heart  received  a  thousand  cuts,  that  it  might  gently 
bleed  away.  As  nightingales  love  most  to  sing  near  an 
echo,  so  does  our  heart  speak  loudest  near  tones  of  music. 
Oh  !  as  the,  so  to  say,  three-stringed  tone  brought  his  al- 
most irrecognizable  hopes  before  him,  —  as  he  gazed  down 
the  Arcadia,  already  deeply  covered  by  the  stream  of 
years,  and  beheld  himself  there  below,  with  all  his  young, 
fresh  desires,  among  his  long-lost  friends,  with  his  joyous 
eyes,  which  gazed  round  the  circle  full  of  confidence  ;  and 
with  his  growing  heart,  which  hoarded  up  and  cherished 
its  love  and  its  fidelity  for  a  warm  heart  in  the  future,  — 
and  when  he  now  chimed  in  with  a  discord,  "  And  I  have 
not  found  such  a  one,  and  now  all  is  over  ! "  —  and  when 
the  cruel  tones,  like  a  camera-obscura,  led  all  the  living, 
moving  pictures  of  blooming  springs,  flowery  lands,  and 
loving  circles,  past  this  solitary  being  who  had  nothing,  — 
not  even  one  soul  to-day  in  this  land,  which  loved  him  ; 
O,  then  his  steadfast  spirit  sank  down,  and  laid  itself,  as 
if  dissolved,  upon  the  earth  to  rest,  and  nothing  now 
soothed  him  but  that  which  gave  him  pain. 

Suddenly  the  night-wandering  tones  vanished,  and  the 
pause  struck  a  chill  to  his  heart,  like  a  silent  night-corpse. 
During  this  melodious  stillness  he  went  into  the  bed- 
chamber, and  said  to  Lenette,  "  Carry  them  down  the 
little  we  have."  But  he  could  scarcely  falter  out  the  last 
words,  because,  by  the  reflection  of  a  flash  of  light  from 


CHAPTER  IX. 


V) 


the  opposite  house,  he  beheld  her  whole  glowing  face  full 
of  streaming,  undried  tears  ;  for,  on  his  entrance,  she  pre- 
tended to  be  occupied  in  wiping  the  window-panes,  which 
were  clouded  by  her  warm  breath.  He  laid  the  money 
upon  the  window,  and  said  in  a  milder  tone,  "  Lenette, 
you  must  take  it,  I  think,  directly,  or  they  will  be  gone." 
She  took  it.  Her  tearful  eyes,  as  she  turned,  caught 
the  glance  of  his  tearful  eyes.  She  went,  —  but  there- 
upon both  became  almost  dry,  so  divided  already  were 
their  souls. 

They  were  suffering  in  that  terrible  situation  when  not 
even  the  hour  of  mutual  emotion  conciliates  and  warms. 
His  whole  bosom  overflowed  with  love,  but  his  no  longer 
belonged  to  hers  :  he  was  oppressed  at  the  same  moment 
by  the  wish  to  love  her,  and  the  impossibility  of  doing  so, 
—  by  the  perception  of  her  failings,  and  the  certainty  of 
her  coldness.  , 

He  seated  himself  in  the  window-seat  and  leaned  his 
head  upon  the  sill,  and  by  chance  touched  the  handker- 
chief she  had  left  there,  which  was  moist  and  cold  with 
tears.  The  mortified  one  had  solaced  herself  after  the  long, 
weary  pressure  of  a  whole  day  with  this  mild  effusion,  — 
as  we  are  bled  after  severe  contusions.  On  touching 
the  handkerchief,  an  icy  shudder  passed  down  his  back, 
like  a  pang  of  conscience,  but  was  immediately  succeeded 
by  a  hot,  burning  glow,  when  the  thought  occurred,  that 
she  had  wept  over  the  loss  of  a  very  different  person  from 
himself. 

The  voice  and  the  flute  now  began  again,  but  without 
the  harp,  and  both  mingled  in  a  slow  song,  every  verse  of 
which  concluded  with  the  words,  "  Gone  is  gone,  jiead  is 
dead ! " 

VOL.  II.  3  D 


50      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


Sorrow  seized  him,  like  the  cloak -fish,  in  its  dark,  suffo- 
cating folds.  He  pressed  Lenette's  wet  handkerchief  hard 
against  his  eyeballs,  and  only  darkly  heard,  "  Gone  is 
gone,  dead  is  dead  ! " 

All  at  once  his  soul  was  melted  by  the  thought,  that 
perhaps  his  stopping  heart  would  not  suffer  him  to  sur- 
vive any  other  new  year  than  that  of  the  morrow,  and  he 
pictured  himself  to  his  imagination  as  dying  ;  and  the 
cold  handkerchief,  cooling  him  with  the  tears  of  both, 
lay  on  his  burning  face  ;  and  the  notes,  like  bells,  marked 
all  the  points  of  time  ;  and  he  could  hear  the  departure 
of  time ;  and  he  beheld  himself  asleep  in  the  silent 
cavern,  as  in  the  grotto  of  serpents,  and  instead  of  snakes, 
the  worms  alone  licked  off  the  hot,  subtle  poison  of  life.* 

The  music  was  over.  He  heard  Lenette  go  into  the 
room  and  light  the  candle.  He  went  out  and  gave  her 
her  handkerchief ;  but  his  inner  man  was  so  wounded 
and  bleeding,  that  he  felt  he  must  embrace  some  out- 
ward being,  whoever  it  might  be.  He  must  press,  if 
not  his  present,  at  least  his  former  Lenette,  —  if  not  his 
loving,  yet  his  suffering  Lenette,  to  his  pining  heart ; 
nevertheless,  he  was  neither  able,  nor  did  he  desire,  to 
speak  a  word  of  love.  He  clasped  his  arms  round  her 
slowly  and  without  bending,  and  pressed  her  to  his 
heart ;  but  she  bent  back  her  head  coldly  and  prematurely 
from  an  unoffered  kiss.  This  pained  him  greatly,  and 
he  said,  "  Am  I  then  happier  than  you  are  ? "  and  he 
bent  down  and  rested  his  face  upon  her  averted  head, 

*  Half-decayed,  diseased  persons  were  formerly  brought  to  the 
grotto  of  serpents  near  Civita  Vecchia,  and  while  they  were  in  a  deep 
sleep  produced  by  opium,  snakes  came  and  licked  off  the  diseased 
matter.  —  Labat's  Travels,  Vol.  VI.  p.  81 


CHAPTER  IX. 


clasped  her  once  more  in  his  arms,  and  then  left  her ; 
and  when  the  vain  embrace  was  over,  his  whole  heart 
echoed,  "  Gone  is  gone,  dead  is  dead ! " 

The  silent  room,  in  which  the  music  and  the  words 
had  ceased,  resembled  an  unfortunate  village  from  which 
the  cruel  enemy  had  carried  off  all  the  bells,  and  where 
all  is  silent  in  the  belfry,  day  and  night,  as  if  time  were 
past. 

Firmian  thought,  as  he  laid  himself  down  :  "  Sleep 
concludes  the  old  year  like  a  last  year,  and  begins  a  new 
one  like  a  life  ;  and  I  n*ow  slumber  towards  an  anxious, 
ill-shaped,  thickly-veiled  futurity.  Thus  man  sleeps  at 
the  barred  gate  of  dreams  ;  and  though  his  dreams  lie 
only  a  few  minutes  or  steps  from  the  threshold,  he  knows 
not  beforehand  what  sort  of  dreams  await  him  when  the 
gate  is  opened,  —  whether  beasts  of  prey  lie  in  wait  for 
him  with  glistening  eyes,  or  sitting,  smiling,  playful 
children  shall  surround  him  in  the  senseless  night,  and 
whether  the  firmly-moulded  vapor  will  strangle  or  em- 
brace him." 


CHAPTER  X. 


The  Solitary  New-Year's  Day.  —  The  Learned  Schalaster. 
—  Wooden  Leg  of  Appeal.  —  Post»  in  the  Room.  —  The  11th 
February,  and  Birth-Day  1786. 

REALLY  cannot  congratulate  my  hero  on  a 
new-year's  morning,  on  which  he  turns  his 
swollen  eyes  heavily  in  their  burning  sockets 
towards  the  morning  red,  and  then  again  em- 
braces the  pillow  with  his  weary,  aching  head.  In  a 
man  who  rarely  weeps,  such  physical  pains  always  ac- 
company moral  s Unerings.  He  staged  in  bed  beyond 
his  usual  hour,  in  order  to  reflect  upon  what  he  had 
done,  and  what  he  should  do.  He  awoke,  feeling  much 
colder  towards  Lenette  than  when  he  fell  asleep. 

If  a  common  emotion  has  no  longer  the  power  of  unit- 
ing two  persons,  if  the  glow  of  enthusiasm  is  no  bond 
between  two  hearts,  still  less  do  they  mingle  together 
when  cool  and  more  brittle.  There  is  an  uncertain  state 
of  incomplete  half-reconciliation,  when  the  perpendicular 
tongue  of  the  jeweller's  balance  in  its  glass  case  is  turned 
by  the  slightest  puff  of  another's  tongue.  Alas !  this 
day  the  scale  sunk  a  little  on  Firmian's  side,  and  on 
Lenette's  entirely.  Nevertheless,  he  prepared  himself, 
at  the  same  time  that  he  feared,  to  give  and  return  a 


CHAPTER  X. 


53 


new-year's  wish ;  but  he  took  courage  and  entered  the 
room  with  his  usual  hearty  step,  as  if  nothing  had  hap- 
pened. Rather  than  call  him,  she  had  allowed  the  coffee- 
pot to  become  a  refrigerator,  ^nd  stood  with  her  back 
turned  towards  him  at  the  drawer  of  the  commode,  occu- 
pied in  tearing  hearts  in  pieces,  to  see  what  was  within 
them.  These  were  printed  new-year's  wishes  in  verse, 
which  she  had  brought  with  her  from  Augsburg,  memen- 
tos of  a  happier  time,  the  gift  of  friends. 

The  friendly  wish  was  hidden  by  a  bunch  of  hearts 
cut  out  in  paper  and  twisted  together  in  a  spiral  line. 
As  the  Holy  Virgin  is  covered  with  waxen  hearts,  so  are 
other  virgins  covered  with  paper  assignat-hearts,  and 
with  these  fair  ones  all  warmth  and  friendship  bears  the 
name  "  heart,"  —  as  map-makers  also  fancy  that  the  out- 
line of  torrid  Africa  resembles  a  heart. 

Firmian  easily  divined  all  the  longing  sighs  which 
arose  in  the  bosom  of  the  impoverished  Lenette  over  so 
many  ruined  wishes,  and  all  the  sad  comparisons  she 
drew  between  the  present  time  and  that  smiling  time, 
and  all  that  sorrow  and  the  past  say  to  a  soft  heart.  Ah, 
if  on  new-year's  day  even  the  happy  sigh,  surely  the 
unhappy  may  well  be  permitted  to  weep ! 

He  breathed  his  "  good  morning  "  gently ;  and  after  a 
gentle  answer,  he  intended  to  add  his  good  wishes  to  the 
torn  ones ;  but  Lenette,  who  was  much  deeper  and 
more  frequently  wounded  than  he  had  been  yesterday, 
muttered  a  cold,  quick  answer  in  return.  Now  he  could 
no  longer  offer  any  wishes,  neither  did  she ;  and  thus, 
unhappy  and  hard,  they  pressed  together  through  the 
gate  of  a  new  year. 

I  ..must  say  it,  —  he  had  already,  eight  weeks  ago, 


54 


FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN 


PIECES. 


looked  forward  with  joyful  anticipations  to  this  morning, 
—  to  the  sweet  melting  of  their  two  hearts,  to  the  thou- 
sand warm  wishes  to  which  he  would  give  utterance,  to 
their  close  embraces,  an<?  the  enchanting  silence  of  lips 
on  lips.  O,  how  different  it  all  was,  —  so  cold,  so  deadly 
cold! 

Why  and  wherefore  his  satirical  vein  served  as  a 
means  of  relieving  his  sensitive  heart,  of  which  he  was 
at  once  both  proud  and  ashamed,  must  be  explained 
elsewhere,  when  I  have  more  paper  at  command  ;  for 
at  first  sight  one  would  be  inclined  to  presume  the  con- 
trary. What  most  contributed  to  this  was  the  imperial 
town  of  Kuhschnappel,  upon  which,  and  on  several  other 
German  places,  as  upon  metals,  the  dew  of  sensibility 
had  not  fallen,  and  where  the  people  had  provided  them- 
selves with  bony  hearts,  on  which,  as  on  frozen  limbs, 
or  witches  branded  with  the  marks  of  the  Devil,  no 
wound  of  any  consequence  could  be  inflicted.  Among 
such  cold  people  we  are  more  .ready  to  pardon,  and  even 
to  seek,  exaggerated  warmth.  A  person,  on  the  other 
hand,  who  happened  to  dwell  in  Leipsic  in  the  year  1785, 
where  most  of  the  hearts  and  arteries  were  filled  with 
the  spirit  of  tears,  might  be  tempted  to  carry  his  humor- 
ous indignation  at  it  too  far ;  as  in  wet  seasons  cooks  mix 
more  strong  spices  among  watery  vegetables  than  in  dry 
seasons. 

Lenette  went  to-day  three  times  to  church ;  but  it  was 
quite  natural.  When  I  use  the  word  "  three  times,"  I 
am  not  horror-struck  for  the  sake  of  the  church-goers, 
who  may  be  greatly  blessed  by  it,  but  for  the  sake  of  the 
poor  clergymen,  who  are  obliged  to  preach  so  often  on 
one  day,  that  they  may  consider  themselves  fortunate 


CHAPTER  X. 


55 


if,  instead  of  becoming  hoarse,  they  only  become  damned. 
A  man  who  preaches  for  the  first  time  certainly  affects 
no  one  so  much  as  himself,  and  is  his  own  proselyte ; 
but  when  he  preaches  morality  for  the  millionth  time, 
it  is  with  him  as  with  the  Egerian  peasants,  who  drink 
the  Egerian  waters  every  day  of  their  lives,  and  in  conse- 
quence cease  to  be  purged  by  them,  however  many  sedes 
they  may  produce  in  the  visitors  of  the  establishment. 

At  dinner  the  sad  couple  were  silent.  The  husband 
only  asked  her  who  was  to  preach,  when  he  saw  her  pre- 
paring to  go  to  the  afternoon  service,  which  she  had  not 
attended  for  a  long  time  past. 

"  Probably  the  Schulrath  Stiefel,"  said  she,  "  although 
generally  he  preaches  in  the  morning ;  but  the  vesper- 
preacher,  Schalaster,  is  unable  to  do  duty-:  he  has  re- 
ceived a  chastisement  from  Heaven,  having  dislocated  his 
collar-bone." 

At  any  other  time  Siebenkäs  would  have  had  a  word 
or  two  to  say  to  this  remark ;  but  now  he  did  nothing 
but  strike  the  prong  of  his  fork  upon  his  plate,  and  raise 
it  quickly  to  one  ear,  while  he  stopped  the  other.  The 
bass  of  this  humming  euphony  drew  his  afflicted  soul 
into  the  billows  of  sound ;  and  this  murmuring  sounding- 
board  —  this  trembling  clapper  —  seemed  to  sing  to  him 
on  the  new  year :  "  Hearest  thou  not  from  afar  how  the 
mass  of  thy  cold  life  is  ringing  to  an  end  ?  It  is  ques- 
tionable whether  thou  wilt  hear  at  all  on  another  new 
year,  —  whether  thou  wilt  not  then  be  lying  in  thy  grave, 
crumbling  into  dust !  " 

After  dinner  he  gazed  out  of  the  window,  not  so  much 
into  the  street  as  up  to  the  sky.  He  there  beheld  two 
other  suns,  and  almost  in  the  zenith  half  a  rainbow, 


56      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


which  was  intersected  by  a  paler  one.*  The  colored 
stars  began  to  sway  his  heart  strangely,  and  made  it  as 
melancholy  as  though  he  beheld  on  high  the  image  or 
reflection  of  his  half-colored,  pale,  and  shattered  exist- 
ence ;  for  to  a  man  under  the  influence  of  emotion, 
nature  is  ever  a  great  mirror  full  of  emotions.  To  the 
satiated  and  quiescent  alone,  she  is  a  cold,  dead  window 
for  the  outward  world. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  he  was  sitting  alone  in  the 
room,  the  joyful  church-hymns  and  the  cheerful  song  of 
the  canary-bird  in  the  neighborhood  came  over  his 
weary  soul  like  the  sound  and  tumult  of  years  of  joy 
buried  alive,  —  and  when  a  bright  gleam  of  sunshine  trav- 
ersed his  apartment,  and  thin  shadows  of  clouds  glided 
over  the  field  of  light  on  the  boards,  and  appealed  to 
his  sick,  moaning  heart  by  a  thousand  sad  resemblances, 
"Is  not  all  so?  do  not  thy  days  pass  away  as  vapors 
through  a  cold  heaven  over  a  dead  earth,  and  so  float  on 
into  the  night  ?  "  —  he  was  obliged  to  open  his  heart  with 
the  soft  blade  of  music,  that  the  largest  drops  of  sorrow 
might  flow  out.  He  struck  a  single  chord  upon  the 
piano  again  and  again,  and  let  its  billows  gradually  sub- 
side;  and  as  the  clouds  flew  by,  the  tones  melted  away, 
the  euphony  flowed  along  more  slowly,  quivered,  and 
died  ;  and  silence  was  there  —  like  a  grave. 

Whilst  he  was  listening,  his  breathing  was  arrested, 
and  his  heart  ceased  to  beat,  —  a  swoon  came  over  his 
soul ;  and  now,  in  this  dreamy,  languid  hour,  the  stream 
of  his  heart,  like  a  flood  which  washes  the  buried  from 
the  churches  and  the  graves,  cast  up  a  new  corpse  out 

*  The  author  observed  a  similar  phenomenon  in  Baireuth  on  the 
19th  January,  1817. 


CHAPTER  X. 


57 


of  the  future,  and  tore  away  its  pall  of  earth.  It  was 
his  own  body,  —  he  was  dead  !  He  gazed  out  of  the 
window  upon  the  cheerful  light  and  stir  of  life ;  but  a 
voice  within  him  continued  to  cry,  "  Deceive  thyself  not : 
ere  the  new-year's  wishes  come  round  again,  thou  wilt 
have  departed  hence  !  " 

When  the  shivering  heart  is  thus  leafless  and  naked, 
every  air  that  blows  on  it  is  a  cold  one.  How  warmly 
and  mildly  Lenette  must  have  touched  it,  in  order  not  to 
shock  it !  Thus  the  somnambulist  feels  the  icy  chill  of 
death  in  the  touch  of  every  hand  from  without  the  magic 
circle. 

He  this  day  resolved  to  enter  into  the  so-called  corpse- 
lottery,*  that  he  might  at  least  be  enabled  to  pay  the 
tax  on  his  departure  into  the  next  world.  He  told  Le-» 
nette  so;  but  she  thought  his  resolution  alluded  to  the 
mourning-gown.  Thus,  full  of  gloom  and  fog,  passed  the 
first  day ;  and  the  first  week  was  still  more  rainy.  The 
border-shrubs  and  hedge  of  Lenette's  love  to  Stiefel  were 
torn  away,  and  her  love  now  stood  free  and  revealed. 
Every  evening,  on  which  the  Schulrath  had  been  wont 
to  come,  vexation  and  grief  made  still  deeper  furrows 
in  her  young  face,  which  gradually  fell  away  into  the 
open  fretwork  of  sorrow.  She  inquired  the  days  on 
which  he  was  to  preach,  that  she  might  hear  him  ;  and 
every  time  a  funeral  passed,  she  went  to  the  window  in 
order  to  see  him.  The  bookbinder's  wife  was  her  cor- 
respondent, and  from  her  she  made  new  discoveries  rela- 
tive to  the  Schulrath,  and  repeated  to  her  the  old  ones. 
How  much  warmth  the  Schulrath  must  gain  by  his  focal 
distance,  and  how  much  the  husband  must  necessarily 

A  benefit-club  to  defray  the  expenses  of  burial.  —  Tr. 
3* 


58      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


lose  by  his  propinquity,  need  not  be  said  ;  even  the  earth 
receives  least  warmth  from  the  sun  when  nearest  to  it, 
that  is  to  say,  in  winter. 

To  all  this  was  added  a  new  ground  of  disinclination 
on  Lenette's  part.  The  Heimlicher  von  Blaise  had  se- 
cretly spread  abroad  the  report  that,  her  husband  was  an 
Atheist,  and  no  Christian.  Respectable  old  maids  and 
clergymen  form  a  beautiful  contrast  to  the  revengeful 
Romans  under  the  emperors,  who  often  accused  the  most 
innocent  man  of  being  a  Christian,  in  order  that  they 
might  weave  for  him  a  crown  of  martyrdom.  The  old 
maids  and  clergymen  above  alluded  to,  on  the  contrary, 
take  the  part  of  a  man  who  labors  under  such  a  sus- 
jncion,  and  deny  that  he  is  a  Christian.  In  this,  also, 
•they  are  .distinguished  from  the  modern  Romans  and  Ital- 
ians, who  always  say  "  There  are  four  Christians  present," 
instead  of  saying  "  four  men." 

The  virtuous  damsel  in  St.  Ferieux,  near  Besanc,on, 
was  rewarded  Avith  a  veil  worth  five  francs  ;  and  this 
beautiful  prize  of  virtue,  viz.  a  moral  veil  worth  six 
francs,  men  such  as  Blaise  are  fond  of  throwing  over 
good  people.  They  therefore  call  thinkers  freethinkers, 
or  unbelievers,  and  heterodox  wolves,  whose  teeth  help 
to  smooth  and  polish ;  and  therefore  a  wolf  is  engraved 
on  the  best  steel  blades. 

When  Siebenkäs  first  communicated  to  his  wife  this 
report  circulated  by  Blaise,  —  to  wit,  that  he  was  no 
Christian,  not  to  say  that  he  was  an  infidel,  —  she  did  not 
pay  much  attention  to  it,  since  it  was  impossible  that  she 
could  believe  such  a  thing  of  a  man  with  whom  she  was 
united  in  marriage.  It  only  afterwards  occurred  to  her 
that  once,  when  there  had  been  too  long  a  continuance 


CHAPTER  X. 


59 


of  dry  weather,  he  had  declared  himself  openly,  not  only 
against  the  Catholic  processions,  —  of  which  ^he  did  not 
think  much  herself,  —  but  also  against  the  Protestant 
prayers,  for  a  change  of  weather ;  for  he  demanded 
whether  the  processions  of  a  mile  long,  called  caravans, 
in  the  Arabian  desert,  had  ever  produced  a  single  cloud 
by  all  their  prayers  for  rain  ;  and  why  the  clergy  held 
processions  only  against  wet  and  dry  weather,  and  not 
also  against  a  severe  winter,  whereby,  for  those  at  least 
who  joined  in  the  procession,  it  would  be  rendered  mild- 
er ;  or  why  not  in  Holland  against  fog,  or  in  Greenland 
against  northern  lights  ?  But  what  surprised  him  most, 
he  added,  was,  that  the  converters  of  the  heathen,  who 
so  frequently,  and  with  such  good  effect,  pray  for  the  sun 
when  it  is  only  concealed  by  clouds,  do  not  likewise  peti- 
tion for  the  solar  body  itself,  which  would  be  much  more 
desirable  in  polar  lands,  where  it  does  not  appear  for  whole 
months  at  a  time,  even  when  the  sky  is  clear ;  or  why, 
demanded  he,  lastly,  do  we  not  adopt  measures  against 
great  eclipses,  which  are  seldom  subjects  of  rejoicing, 
but  allow  ourselves  to  be  outdone  by  the  savages,  who  at 
least  succeed  in  howling  and  praying  them  away  ? 

How  many  words,  at  first  innocent,  even  sweet,  con- 
tract poisonous  qualities  on  the  shelf  of  time,  like  sugar 
which  has  been  kept  for  thirty  years  in  the  warehouse  !  * 
These  few  words  now  made  a  great  impression  on  Le- 
nette,  as  she  sat  beneath  the  pulpit  of  Stiefel,  which  was 
made  entirely  of  apostles,  and  heard  him  utter  one  prayer 
after  the  other,  now  for,  now  against  illness,,  government, 
childbirth,  harvest,  &c.  How  dear,  on  the  other  hand, 
Pelzstiefel  became  to  her,  and  how  beautifully  his  ser- 

*  Sander,  Concerning  the  Great  and  Beautiful  in  Nature,  Vol.  I. 


6o      FLOWffi,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

mons  were  converted  into  real  love-letters  for  her  heart ! 
Indeed,  in  'general,  the  clergy  stand  in  close  connection 
with  the  female  heart,  and  hence  the  heart  on  German 
cards  originally  denoted  the  clergy. 

And  what  did  Stanislaus  ßiebenkäs  do  and  think  all 
this  time  ?  Two  things  which  contradict  each  other. 
If  he  happened  to  say  a  hard  word,  he  then  pitied  the 
weary,  forsaken  soul,  whose  rose-parterre  of  joy  was  all 
rooted  up,  whose  first  love  to  the  Schulrath  languished  in 
want  and  misery,  and  whose  soul,  now  a  closed  flower, 
would  have  unfolded  its  thousand  charms  in  presence 
of  a  beloved  heart,  for  his  was  not  that  beloved  heart. 
"  And  do  I  not  see,"  he  continued  to  himself,  "  that  a  pin 
or  a  pin's  head  cannot  possibly  be  as  good  a  pointed 
lightning-conductor  for  her  sultry  storm-clouds,  as  the 
pointed  pen  is  to  me  ?  A  man  can  write  much  off  his 
mind,  but  not  sew  much  off ;  and,  setting  aside  astronomy 
and  psychology,  when  I  consider  what  swimming-clothes 
and  cork-waistcoats  I  possess  for  the  deepest  floods,  in 
the  self-contemplations  of  the  Emperor  Antoninus  and  in 
Arian  Epictetus,  neither  of  whom  she  is  acquainted  with 
either  by  name  or  by  the  binding,  and  what  good  firemen 
these  are  to  me  when  I  get  into  a  conflagration  of  anger, 
as  I  did  just  now,  while  she  must  let  her  anger  burn 
down  without  any  assistance  ;  verily  I  ought  rather  to 
be  ten  times  milder  towards  her,  instead  of  being  more 
angry." 

But  when,  on  the  contrary,  it  occurred  that,  instead  of 
having  given  hard  words,  he  had  received  them  ;  he  then 
pictured  to  himself  the  strong  yearning  she  felt  towards 
the  Schulrath,  which  she  could  secretly  cherish  during 
her  mechanical  needle-labors,  and  increase  as  much  as 


CHAPTER  X. 


61 


she  pleased ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  reflected  on  the 
continual  yielding  of  his  own  too  soft  heart,  for  which  his 
strong-minded  friend  Leibgeber  would  have  scolded  him 
without  further  ceremony,  and  his  wife  still  more  for  the 
contrary  defect :  "  And  she  would  scarcely  find  such  in- 
dulgence," thought  he,  "  in  her  Stiefel,  if  any  conclusion 
might  be  drawn  from  the  late  rude  and  hasty  manner  in 
which  he  had  thrown  up  the  capital  of  love." 

lie  was  in  this  latter  humor  one  Sunday,  when,  per- 
ceiving that  she  was  again  about  to  visit  the  vesper^ser- 
vice,  he  asked  her,  with  a  spirit  laden  with  anger,  the 
light  question,  "  Why  she  formerly  went  so  seldom  to 
church  in  the  evening,  but  now  so  often  ?  " 

It  was  because  formerly  the  vesper-preacher  Schalaster 
performed  the  service,  she  answered ;  but  now,  since  he 
had  put  out  his  collar-bone,  the  Schulrath  preached  in  his 
stead.  When  the  bone  was  restored,  then  God  preserve 
her  from  attending  his  church-service. 

By  degrees  he  drew  out  from  her,  that  she  held  the 
young  Schalaster  for  a  dangerous  teacher  of  false  doc- 
trine, who  differed  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  Luther, 
since  he  believed  in  Jesos  Christos,  Petros,  Paulos,  in 
fact,  os'd  all  the  apostles,  so  that  it  was  a  scandal  to  all 
good  Christian  souls,  and  he  had  named  the  holy  Jerusa- 
lem in  such  a  manner  that  she  could  not  even  repeat  it,  — 
since  that  time  he  had  put  out  his  collar-bone,  —  but  she 
would  not  judge. 

"  Don't  do  so,  dear  Lenette,"  said  Siebenkäs ;  "  either 
the  young  man  is  short-sighted,  or  is  not  well  versed  in 
the  Greek  Testament,  for  the  u  looks  there  like  an  o." 

0,  how  many  Schalasters  are  there,  who,  in  their  sev- 
eral sciences  and  doctrines,  say  Petros  instead  of  Petrus, 


62      FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


and  thus  needlessly  and  without  corner-stone  bring  divis- 
ion among  men  by  consanguineous  vowels  ! 

But  this  once  Schalaster  brought  them  a  little  nearer. 
It  was  a  consolation  to  the  Advocate  to  discover  that  he 
had  hitherto  been  in  error,  and  that  not  love  to  Stiefel 
alone,  but  love  to  pure  religion,  had  taken  Lenette  to  the 
evening  service. 

The  difference,  in  sooth,  was  slight ;  but  in  our  need  we 
accept  every  consolation.  Siebenkäs  therefore  rejoiced 
in  secret,  that  his  wife  did  not  love  the  Schulrath  quite 
so  much  as  he  had  supposed.  Let  no  one  here  depre- 
ciate the  thin  cobweb  which  bears  us  and  our  happiness. 
When  we  have  spun  and  drawn  it  out  of  ourselves,  as 
the  spider  draws  her  thread,  it  sustains  us  tolerably  well, 
and  like  the  spider  we  hang  suspended  in  the  midst, 
and  the  storm- wind  rocks  us  and  our  web  uninjured  to 
and  fro. 

From  this  day  forward  Siebenkäs  went  again  straight- 
way to  the  only  friend  he  had  in  the  place,  the  Schulrath, 
whose  slight  fault  he  had  long  since  forgiven  —  I  believe 
half  an  hour  afterwards  —  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart. 
He  knew  his  coining  would  be  a  consolation  for  the  ban- 
ished apostle  in  his  room-Patmos,  and  for  his  wife  it  was 
likewise  one.  He  even  carried  greetings,  which  were  not 
uttered,  to  and  fro,  between  the  two. 

In  the  evening,  the  little  pieces  of  news  he  threw  out 
about  the  Schulrath  were  the  young  green  shoots  which 
the  scraping  partridge  scratches  out  from  beneath  the  deep 
snow.  However,  I  disguise  it  not,  I  feel  pity  both  for 
him  and  for  her,  and  I  cannot  be  the  miserable  partisan, 
who  is  unable  to  give  sympathy  and  love  at  the  same  time 
to  l  wo  persons  who  misunderstand  and  make  war  upon 
one  another. 


CHAPTER  X. 


&3 


Out  of  this  gray,  sultry  sky,  whose  electrical  machines 
every  hour  charged  with  accumulating  fluid,  fell  at  last 
the  first  violent  thunder-clap.  Firmian  lost  his  suit.  The 
Heimlicher  had  been  the  rubbing  cat's-skin  and  whipping 
fox's-tail,  which  had  filled  the  Chamber  of  Inheritance,  or 
pitch-cake  of  justice,  full  of  little  pocket-flashes  of  light- 
ning. But  the  loss  of  the  suit  was  adjudged  to  the  Advo- 
cate on  legal  grounds,  viz.  on  the  plea  that  the  young 
notary  Giegold,  with  whose  notary's  instrument  he  had 
armed  himself,  was  not  yet  matriculated. 

There  can  be  few  who  are  ignorant  that  no  legal  in- 
strument is  valid  in  Saxony  which  is  not  drawn  up  by  a 
notary  who  has  been  matriculated,  and  no  document  can 
be  of  more  value  as  evidence  in  a  foreign  land  than  in  the 
land  where  it  was  originally  drawn  up.  Thus  Firmian 
lost  the  lawsuit,  and  for  the  moment  the  inheritance ;  but 
it  nevertheless  remained  untouched  as  long  as  any  legal 
dispute  was  pending.  Nothing,  indeed,  secures  a  fortune 
better  from  thieves  and  clients  and  advocates,  than  its 
being  a  depositum  or  object  of  contention  (objectum  litis). 
Nobody  can  touch  it,  because  the  sum  is  distinctly  speci- 
fied in  the  acts,  unless  the  acts  themselves  were  previously 
got  rid  of.  In  the  same  manner,  the  husbandman  rejoices 
when  the  weevil  has  spun  its  web  all  over  his  rick,  and 
dressed  it  in  white  curling-papers,  because  then  the  grains 
which  the  spinner  has  not  eaten  into  are  safe  against  all 
other  weevils. 

It  is  never  easier  to  gain  a  lawsuit  than  when  it  is  lost ; 
for  then  an  appeal  can  be  made.  After  the  payment  of 
all  ordinary  vand  extraordinary  costs,  and  after  the  re- 
demption of  the  acts,  the  law  offers  the  beneficium  appel- 
lationis  (the  benefit  of  an  appeal  to  a  higher  court)*; 


64     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

although  in  this  comedy  of  benevolence  and  legal  benefit, 
other  extraordinary  benefits  are  first  requisite  before  the 
legal  ones  can  be  made  available. 

Siebenkäs  might  appeal.  It  was  easy  for  him  to  estab- 
lish the  proof  of  his  name  and  his  wardship  by  another 
notary  of  Leipsic,  who  was  matriculated,  and  nothing  was 
wanting  but  the  weapon  or  instrument  of  battle,  which 
was  at  the  same  time  its  object,  viz.  money. 

During  the  ten  days  in  which  the  appeal,  like  a  foetus, 
had  to  be  matured,  he  was  ill  and  thoughtful.  Each  of 
the  decimal  days  exercised  one  of  the  ten  persecutions 
of  the  early  Christians  upon  him,  and  decimated  his  cheer- 
ful hours.  The  time  was  too  short,  and  the  way  too  long, 
to  demand  money  from  his  Leibgeber  in  Baireuth  ;  be- 
sides, Leibgeber,  to  judge  from  his  silence,  had  probably 
leapt  over  many  a  mountain  with  the  leaping-pole  and 
shoe-spikes  of  his  profile-scissors.  Firmian  therefore  re- 
nounced all  hope,  and  went  to  console  himself  and  relate 
everything  to  his  old  friend  Stiefel.  The  latter  waxed 
wroth  at  the  boggy,  bottomless  road  of  law,  and  pressed 
the  Advocate  to  accept  stilts  for  it,  —  the  money  for  mak- 
ing his  appeal.  Ah,  it  seemed  to  the  unsatisfied,  yearn- 
ing Schulrath  as  if  he  once  again  grasped  Lenette's 
beloved  hand  ;  and  his  honest  blood,  frozen  by  icy  cold 
days,  once  more  began  to  thaw  and  to  circulate.  It  was 
from  no  cheating  of  his  sense  of  honor^  that  Firmian, 
who  preferred  hunger  to  borrowing,  nevertheless  accepted 
every  dollar  from  Stiefel,  as  a  little  stone  with  which  to 
pave  the  marshy  path  of  law,  and  pass  over  without  get- 
ting dirty.  But  the  motive  that  chiefly  influenced  him 
was  the  thought  that  he  should  soon  die,  and  his  helpless 
widow  would  (hen  at  least  have  the  enjoyment  of  the 
little  inheritance. 


CHAPTER  X. 


65 


He  appealed  to  the  highest  court,  and  ordered  a  new 
instrument  to  be  executed  for  him  in  Leipsic,  at  another 
notary'-s  forge,  by  the  witness-confessor  Lobstein. 

These  new  rubs  and  scratches  of  fortune  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  goodness  and  rents  of  the  Schulrath  on  the 
other,  accumulated  oxygen  in  Lenette's  mind,  but  the  acid 
of  her  ill-humor  was  condensed,  like  other  acids,  by  a 
season  of  frost,  on  which  subject  I  will  immediately  com- 
municate my  meteorological  observations. 

Ever  since  the  quarrel  with  Stiefel,  Lenette  remained 
silent  the  whole  day  ;  and  it  was  only  the  presence  of 
strangers  which  cured  the  paralysis  of  her  tongue.  There 
must  be,  no  doubt,  some  clever  physical  explanation  of 
the  fact,  that  a  woman  is  often  unable  to  speak  except  to 
strangers ;  and  we  ought  likewise  to  be  able  to  discover 
the  opposite  cause  of  the  opposite  phenomenon,  —  that  a 
somnambulist  can  only  speak  with  the  magnetizer  and  his 
associates.  All  the  people  in  St.  Hilda  cough  on  the 
landing  of  a  stranger ;  and  coughing,  if  not  itself  speak- 
ing, may  at  least  be  considered  as  the  preliminary  creak- 
ing of  the  wheels  of  the  speaking  machine.  This  periodic 
dumbness,  which,  as  is  frequently  the  case  with  the  per- 
manent disease,  probably  proceeds  from  checked  erup- 
tions of  the  skin,  has  long  been  known  to  physicians. 
"Wepfer  cites  the  case  of  a  paralytic  woman  who  could 
only  utter  the  paternoster  and  the  creed  ;  and,  in  married 
life,  attacks  of  dumbness  are  frequent,  during  which  the 
wife  can  only  speak  to  the  husband  the  few  words  that  are 
absolutely  necessary.  A  person  sick  of  a  fever,  in  Wit- 
tenberg, could  not  speak  during  the  whole  day  except 
from  twelve  to  one  o'clock  ;  and  we  find  many  such  fe- 
male mutes,  who  are  only  able  to  bring  out  a  word  for  a 

VOL.  11.  E 


66     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


quarter  of  an  hour  during  the  day,  or  in  the  evening,  but 
relieve  themselves  by  means  of  the  little  bells  of  the  dumb, 
for  which  they  use  keys,  plates,  and  doors. 

This  dumbness  at  last  hardened  the  poor  Advocate  so ' 
much,  that  he  caught  the  complaint  himself.  He  mim- 
icked his  wile,  as  a  father  mimics  his  children,  in  order 
to  improve  her.  His  satirical  humor  often  wore  the 
appearance  of  satirical  wickedness  ;  but  he  assumed  it 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  himself  cool  and 
composed. 

When  chambermaids  disturbed  him  amid  his  boiling 
and  brewing  of  authorship,  so  that,  with  Lenette's  assist- 
ance, they  turned  his  room  into  a  herald's  chancery  and 
rostrum,  he  at  least  dragged  down  his  wife  from  the 
platform  (this  had  been  previously  agreed  upon  between 
them)  by  knocking  three  times  with  the  gilded  bird's 
sceptre  upon  his  writing-desk  :  thus,  too,  by  a  sceptre,  the 
freedom  of  the  press  is  easily  taken  away  from  a  sisfer- 
speaker.  Indeed,  when  he  sat  before  these  talking  Cice- 
ro's heads,  without  being  able  to  give  birth  to  a  thought 
or  a  line,  and  reflected  not  so  much  on  the  injury  to  him- 
self as  on  that  which  accrued  to  countless  persons  of  the 
greatest  intelligence  and  rank,  who  thus  lost  a  thousand 
bright  ideas  through  these  learned  talkers,  —  he  was  often 
induced  to  give  a  terrible  rap  with  the  sceptre  or  ruler 
upon  the  table,  even  as  a  pond  is  struck  in  order  to  silence 
the  croaking  of  the  frogs.  What  most  vexed  him  was 
the  robbery  committed  on  posterity  by  such  evaporating 
gossip,  should  his  book  chance  to  be  handed  down  to  it, 
deprived,  by  this  means,  of  much  of  its  merit.  It  is  a  fine 
thing  that  authors,  even  those  who  deny  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  seldom  venture  to  attack  the  immortality  of 


CHAPTER  X. 


67 


their  own  names ;  and,  as  Cicero  declared  he  would  be- 
lieve in  a  future  life,  even  if  there  were  none,  so  they 
too  sti#  cling  to  the  belief  in  the  second  eternal  life  of  their 
names,  even  though  critics  should  most  conclusively  prove 
it  to  be  a  fallacy. 

Siebenkäs  now  made  known  to  his  wife  that  he  would 
speak  to  her  no  more,  not  even  about  the  most  necessary 
things ;  and  this  simply  that  he  might  not  be  disturbed  or 
cooled  in  his  fervor,  while  he  was  writing,  or  become  ex- 
cited against  her  by  long  speeches  about  gossiping,  wash- 
ing, &c.  The  same  thing,  indifferent  in  itself,  might  be 
said  in  ten  different  tones  and  discords  ;  in  order,  there- 
fore, to  leave  his  wife  in  ignorance,  and  stimulate  her  cu- 
riosity about  the  tone  in  which  a  thing  might  be  spoken, 
he  would  only  communicate  with  her  in  future,  he  said,  by 
writing. 

I  have  the  best  explanation  quite  at  hand.  The  grave, 
discreet  bookbinder,  for  instance,  was  never  so  vexed 
with  any  one  throughout  the  whole  year  as  with  his 
Schliffel,  as  he  called  him,  his  light-headed  son,  who  read 
the  best  books  better  than  he  bound  them,  who  cut  them 
crooked  and  too  close,  and,  by  screwing  the  bookbinder's 
press  as  tight  as  a  printing-press,  both  attenuated  and 
doubled  the  size  of  the  wet  sheets.  The  father  could  not 
endure  to  see  it ;  and  became  so  angry  that  he  resolved 
not  to  speak  another  word  to  this  Devil's  own  imp.  He, 
therefore,  handed  over  the  sumptuary  laws  and  golden 
rules,  which  he  had  to  give  to  his  son  while  he  was  bind- 
ing, to  his  wife,  as  imperial  post-woman,  who,  with  her 
needle  as  messenger's  staff,  got  up  from  the  furthest  cor- 
ner of  the  room,  and  brought  the  commands  to  the  son, 
who  was  planing  close  to  his  father. 


68      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


The  son,  who  delivered  his  answers  and  questions 
again  to  the  messenger,  was  quite  pleased  with  this  turn 
of  affairs  ;  for  his  father  could  not  now  scold  so%much  ; 
with  the  latter,  it  at  length  became  a  habit  never  to  treat 
anything  by  word  of  mouth.  He  sought,  indeed,  to 
communicate  his  sentiments  to  his  son  by  looks,  and 
shot  warm  glances  at  him,  like  a  lover,  as  he  sat  oppo- 
site to  him  ;  but,  though  we  have  eye-letters  as  well  as 
palate-letters,  teeth-letters,  and  tongue-letters,  yet  an  eye 
full  of  glances  is  but  a  confused  box  of  pearl  type.  Nev- 
ertheless, as  the  invention  of  writing  and  of  the  post  has 
luckily  enabled  a  man  who  is  circumnavigating  the 
North  Pole  on  a  block  of  ice,  to  communicate  with  an- 
other who  is  sitting  among  parrots  beneath  a  palm-tree 
in  the  torrid  zone,  —  so  father  and  son,  while  they  were 
sitting  apart  opposite  one  another  at  the  work-table, 
could  now,  by  means  of  tiiis  invention,  sweeten  and 
lighten  their  separation  by  a  correspondence  carried  on 
across  the  table.  The  most  important  letters  of  business 
were  despatched  to  and  fro  unsealed,  yet  safely,  since 
two  fingers  constituted  the  mail-bag  and  packet  in  this 
penny-post. 

The  correspondence  by  letter  and  courier  was  carried 
on  upon  such  smooth  roads,  and  with  such  excellent 
postes  aux  dnes  between  the  two  mute  powers,  that,  with 
much  freedom  of  intercourse,  the  father  could  easily 
obtain  an  answer  to  the  most  important  communication 
from  his  correspondent  in  one  minute ;  indeed,  they  were 
as  little  divided  from  one  another  as  if  they  dwelt  in 
neighboring  houses. 

If  a  traveller  should  happen  to  arrive  at  Kuhschnap- 
pel  before  me,  I  beg  he  will  saw  off  the  two  table-corners, 


CHAPTER  X. 


6y 


one  of  which  was  the  post-office  to  the  other,  and  put 
these  bureaux  in  his  pocket,  and  exhibit  them,  in  some 
great  town,  to  the  curious,  or  to  me  in  Hof. 

Siebenkäs,  in  some  sort,  imitated  him.  He  cut  out 
beforehand  little  written  decrees  for  the  most  needful 
emergencies.  If  Lenette  happened  to  put  an  unforeseen 
question,  for  which  his  pocket-book  as  yet  contained 
no  answer,  he  wrote  three  lines,  and  handed  her  the 
prescription  across  the  table.  Those  royal  notes-of-hand 
or  orders-of-council,  which  were  to  be  repeated  daily, 
he  demanded  back  again  in  the  evening  by  a  standing 
written  requisition,  in  order  to  save  writing-paper,  and 
spure  himself  the  trouble  of  writing  them  each  time 
anew,  —  he  merely  handed  over  the  scrap.  But  what 
said  Lenette  to  this  ? 

I  shall  be  able  to  give  a  better  answer  after  having 

related  what  follows.    He  spoke  only  once  in  this  deaf 

and  dumb  institution.    It  was  while  he  was  eating  wild 

salad  out  of  an  earthen  dish,  which  was  ornamented  not 

only  with  flowers,  but  with  a  motto  in  verse.    He  lifted 

off  the  salad  wThich  hid  this  little  border  carmen  with  his 

fork.    It  ran  thus  :  — 

"  Peace  feeds,  and  strife 
Consumes  our  life." 

Every  time  he  lifted  off  a  fork-full,  he  could  read  one  or 
two  feet  more  of  this  didactic  poem,  and  he  did  so  aloud. 
What  said  Lenette  to  it,  we  demanded  above.  Not  a 
word,  I  answer.  She  did  not  allow  his  silence  and  anger 
to  drive  away  hers ;  for  he  seemed  to  her  at  last  to  be 
doggedly  spiteful,  and  she  determined  not  to  b*e  outdone 
by  him.  And,  indeed,  he  went  further  every  day,  and 
continually  pushed  new  commandments,  in  broken  tab- 


70.     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


lets,  across  the  table  to  the  corner,  or  carried  them  to 
her  table.  I  will  only  mention  a  few  :  for  instance,  the 
cannon-royal  slip  (for  he  always  invented  new  titles  for 
his  own  amusement),  containing  these  words,  "  Stop  the 
overflowing  mouth  of  that  tall  sewing-animal,  who  sees 
that  I  am  writing,  or  I  will  seize  her  by  the  throat 
with  which  she  baits  me";  the  official  paper,  "Bring 
me  a  little  water ;  I  wish  to  cleanse  my  bear's  paws  of 
ink  "  ;  the  pastoral  letter,  u  I  wish  to  have  a  moment  or 
two  of  peace,  in  order  to  read  Epictetus  on  the  endur- 
ance of  all  men,  therefore  disturb  me  not";  the  pin- 
paper,  "  I  am  working  at  one  of  the  most  difficult  and 
bitter  satires  upon  women,  —  take  the  screaming  book- 
binder's wife  down  to  the  barber's  wife,  and  converse 
together  as  briskly  as  you  please  "  ;  the  torture-bench 
folio,  "  I  have  borne  as  much  as  possible  this  forenoon, 
and  have  wrestled  and  overcome  brooms,  and  feather- 
dusters,  and  cap-heads,  and  tongue-heads,  —  might  I  not 
now,  towards  evening,  be  allowed  to  look  over  these 
penal  acts  before  me  for  a  little  hour,  untormented  and 
in  peace  ?  " 

No  one  will  persuade  me  that  the  stinging  and  pin- 
paper  pricking  of  these  visiting-cards,  which  he  left  at 
her  door,  was  much  mitigated  by  his  changing  the  writ- 
ing occasionally  into  speech,  when  others  happened  to 
be  present,  and  jesting  with  them  in  some  such  manner 
as  the  following.  One  day  he  said  to  the  hair-dresser 
Meerbitzer,  in  presence  of  Lenette,  "  It  is  quite  in- 
credible how  much  we  yearly  consume  in  our  domestic 
economy.  My  wife,  as  she  there  stands,  alone  consumes 
every  year  ten  hundred  weight  of  food ;  and,"  added  he 
(as  she  and  the  barber  struck  their  hands  together  over 


CHAPTER  X. 


71 


their  heads),  "  I  also."  It  is  true,  he  showed  it  to 
Meerbitzer  in  print,  in  Schlözer,  that  every  human 
being  consumes  that  quantity  ;  but  who  in  the  room 
would  have  conceived  it  possible? 

Pouting  or  sulking  is  catalepsy  of  the  spirit,  in  which, 
as  in  the  physical  disease,  every  limb  rigidly  maintains 
the  position  in  which  it  was  surprised  by  the  attack  ;  and 
the  spiritual  disease  has  likewise  this  in  common  with, 
the  physical  disease,  that  women  are  oftener  attacked  by 
it  than  men.  Siebenkäs,  consequently,  only  doubled  the 
rigidity  of  his  wife  by  the  apparently  malicious  jest,  the 
sole  motive  of  which  was  to  keep  himself  cooler ;  and 
yet  much  would  have  been  overlooked  had  she  only  seen 
Pelzstiefel  once  in  each  week,  and  had  not  the  household 
cares  for  food  which  consumed  and  melted  all  the  pewter 
from  the  bird-pole,  so  to  say,  decomposed  and  dried  up 
the  last  glad,  warm  drops  of  blood  in  her  unhappy  heart. 
The  sorrow-laden  one  !  but,  as  it  was,  there  was  no  help 
for  her,  nor  for  him,  whom  she  misunderstood ! 

Poverty  is  the  only  load  which  is  the  heavier  the 
more  loved  ones  there  are  to  assist  in  supporting  it. 
Had  Firmian  been  alone,  he  would  scarcely  have  cast  a 
glance  upon  these  fissures  and  holes  in  our  path  of  life, 
since  at  every  thirty  steps  Fate  places  little  heaps  of 
stones  wherewith  to  fill  them  up.  And  there  was  always 
a  haven,  or  diving-bell,  open  to  him  in  the  greatest  storm, 
besides  that  of  glorious  philosophy,  his  watch,  namely,  or 
rather  its  cost  price. 

But  his  wife,  with  her  pieces  of  funereal  music  and 
her  Kyrie  eleison,  and  a  thousand  other  things,  and 
Leibgebers  incomprehensible  silence,  and  his  growing 
illness,  —  all  these  together,  with  their  many  impurities, 


72     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  .PIECES. 

turned  the  breeze  of  his  life  into  a  sultry,  enervating 
sirocco  wind,  which  excites  in  a  man  a  dry,  burning 
thirst,  to  cure  which  he  often  takes  into  his  bosom  what 
the  soldier  takes  into  his  mouth  to  cool  and  quench  his 
physical  thirst,  —  cold  lead  and  gunpowder.. 

On  the  eleventh  of  February,  Firmian  sought  to  re- 
lieve himself. 

On  the  eleventh  of  February,  Euphrosyne's  day,  1767, 
Lenette  was  born. 

She  had  often  told  it  to  him,  and  to  her  sewing-cus- 
tomers still  oftener,  but  he  would  have  forgotten  it 
nevertheless,  had  it  not  been  for  the  General  Superin- 
tendent Ziehen,  who  published  a  book  in  which  he  re- 
minded him  of  the  eleventh  of  February.  The  Superin- 
tendent had  prophesied  that  on  the  eleventh  of  February, 
1786,  a  piece  of  Southern  Germany  would  be  swallowed 
up,  like  Lagerkorn,  into  the  lower  region  by  an  earth- 
quake ;  in  which  case  the  Kuhschnapplers  would  have 
been  let  down  by  the  coffin-ropes  or  falling  drawbridge 
of  sinking  earth,  and  have  tumbled  into  hell  en  masse, 
instead  of  going,  as  heretofore,  as  single  envoyes.  But 
nothing  came  of  it. 

The  day  preceding  the  earthquake  and  Lenette's  birth- 
day, Firmian  went  in  the  afternoon  up  to  the  lifting 
machine  and  spring-board  of  his  soul,  —  the  old  height 
where  his  Henry  had  forsaken  him.  His  friend  and  his 
wife'  stood  in  cloudy  images  about  his  soul.  He  reflected 
that  from  Henry's  departure  up  to  the  present  time  as 
many  important  divisions  had  taken  place  in  his  marriage 
as  Moreri  counts  in  the  church  of  the  apostles  up  to  the 
time  of  Luther,  viz.  124.  Harmless,  quiet,  glad  labor- 
ers were  smoothing  the  path  for  the  spring.    He  had 


CHAPTER  X. 


73 


passed  by  gardens  where  they  were  clearing  the  trees 
from  moss  and  autumn-leaves  ;  by  beehives  and  vines 
which  they  were  transplanting  and  cleaning,  and  by 
the  clipped  twigs  of  the  willow-trees.  The  sun  shone 
brightly  over  the  budding  landscape.  All  at  once  it 
seemed  to  him  (and  this  often  happens  to  people  of  strong 
imagination,  who  therefore  easily  become  visionaries)  as 
if  his  life  dwelt  in  a  soft,  warm  tear,  instead  of  in  a  solid 
heart,  and  as  if  his  heavily-laden  spirit  were  forcing  and 
dilating  itself  out  of  a  crack  in  its  prison,  and  melting 
into  a  tone,  —  a  blue  wave  of  ether. 

"  I  will  forgive  her  on  her  birthday,"  said  his  soft- 
ened soul ;  "  hitherto,  perhaps,  I  have  been  too  hard 
upon  her." 

He  resolved  to  bring  back  the  Schulrath  into  the 
house,  and  previously  the  striped  calico,  and  of  these 
and  a  new  sewing-cushion  to  make  her  a  birthday  pres- 
ent. He  seized  his  watch-chain,  and  pulled  out  by  it 
the  means  —  the  Elias  and  Faust  cloak  —  which  could 
bear  him  over  all  evils,  that  is  to  say,  by  selling  the 
cloak. 

He  went  home  with  nothing  but  sunshine  pervading 
all  the  corners  of  his  heart,  and,  making  his  watch  stop 
artificially,  he  told  Lenette  it  must  go  to  the  watch- 
maker's to  be  mended.  In  fact,  its  movement  had  hitherto 
been  like  those  of  the  planets  in  the  commencement  of 
their  clock-day,  —  first  progressive,  then  stationary,  then 
retrograde.  By  this  means  he  concealed  his  project  from 
her.  He  carried  it  himself  to  market  and  sold  it,  al- 
though he  knew  for  certain  that  he  could  not  write  well  • 
unless  he  heard  it  ticking  on  his  writing-table,  —  as,  ac- 
cording to  Locke,  there  was  a  nobleman  who  could  only 

VOL.  II.  4 


74     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


dance  in  a  room  where  an  old  box  was  standing  ;  —  and 
in  the  evening  the  redeemed  bloody  shirt  and  seed-bag  of 
weeds  was  secretly  smuggled  into  the  house.  Firmian 
went  the  same  evening  to  the  Schulrath,  and  with  the 
fresh  warmth  of  his  eloquent  heart  announced  to  him  his 
resolution,  —  the  birthday,  the  return  of  the  calico,  his 
request  of  a  visit,  his  approaching  death,  and  his  resjgna- 
•  tion  to  everything. 

Warm  breath  of  life  was  breathed  into  the  sick  Schul- 
rath,  who  had  been  gnawed  paler  by  absence  or  love, 
like  the  shadows  in  fresco  paintings  by  the  lime,  on  hear- 
ing that  to-morrow  the  long-denied  voice  (Lenette  could 
at  least  hear  his  in  the  church)  would  once  more  stir  all 
the  chords  of  his  being. 

I  must  here  introduce  a  defence  and  an  accusation. 
The  former  concerns  my  hero,  who  almost  seems  to 
crumple  up  his  honor's  patent  of  nobility  by  this  re- 
quest to^  Stiefel ;  but  he  intended  thereby  to  do  a  great 
favor  to  his  wife,  and  a  small  one  to  himself.  Not  even 
the  strongest  and  most  violent  man  can  hold  out  in  the 
long-run  against  the  eternal  pouting  and  undermining  of 
a  woman.  To  have  peace  and  quietness,  such  an  individ- 
ual, who,  before  marriage,  swore  a  thousand  oaths  that  he 
would  have  his  own  way,  at  lasts  lets  the  mistress  have 
hers.  As  to  the  rest  of  Firmian's  behavior,  I  need  not 
attempt  to  defend  it,  because  it  is  indefensible. 

The  accusation  I  promised  regards  my  companions  in 
labor.  I  accuse  them  of  departing  in  their  novels  so 
much  from  this  biography  or  from  nature,  and  of  describ- 
^  ing  the  quarrels  and  reconciliations  of  people  as  possible 
and  as  actually  occurring  in  so  short  a  period,  that  one 
might  stand  by  with  a  second-watch  and  count  the  time. 


CHAPTER  X. 


75 


But  a  man  is  not  torn  away  from  a  beloved  being  all  at 
once  ;  but  the  ruptures  are  succeeded  by  little  bast  and 
flower-bindings,  until  the  long  alternations  of  shunning 
and  seeking  end  in  a  total  separation ;  and  thus,  at  last, 
the  poor  creatures  become  most  poor.  With  the  union 
of  souls  it  is  in  general  the  same ;  and  even  when  some- 
times an  invisible,  infinite  arm,  as  it  were,  presses  us  sud- 
denly upon  a  new  heart,  still  we  had  long  known  this 
heart  intimately  among  the  holy  pictures  of  our  longing, 
and  had  often  taken  down  the  picture,  and  often  uncov- 
ered it  and  worshipped  it. 

Later  "in  the  evening  Firmian  found  it  impossible  to 
wait  patiently  in  his  solitary  chair  of  cares,  with  all  his 
love,  until  the  morrow.  The  restraint  itself  made  his 
affection  ever  warmer ;  and  when  anxiety  lest  he  should 
die  of  apoplexy  before  the  spring  equinox  overtook  him, 
he  was  exceedingly  terrified,  not  at  the  thought  of  death, 
but  at  the  idea  how  embarrassed  Lenette  would  be  to 
obtain  the  fees  necessary  to  pay  for  this  last  trial,  —  the 
anchor-proof*  of  man.  He  was  just  now  possessed  of 
money  in  superfluity,  —  he  jumped  up  and  ran  this  very 
night  to  the  director  of  the  Burial  Insurance  Company, 
in  order  that  his  wife  might  inherit  fifty  florins  at  his 
death,  wherewith  to  cover  the  sucker  of  his  body  decent- 
ly with  earth.  I  am  not  aware  how  much  he  paid,  but 
I  am  used  to  this  embarrassment,  which  a  novel-writer, 
who  can  invent  any  sum  he  pleases,  is  quite  unacquaint- 
ed with,  but  which  is  exceedingly  burdensome  and  in- 
convenient to  the  historian  of  a  true  biography,  inasmuch 
as  the  latter  ought  to  write  nothing  but  what  he  could 

*  This  consists  in  casting  down  the  anchor  from  a  height  on  a  hard 
ground. 


76      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

confirm  by  documents  and  by  recourse  to  archive  cham- 
bers. 

On  the  morning  of  the  eleventh  of  February,  or  on 
Saturday,  Firmian  entered  the  room  softened  in  heart,  — 
for  every  illness  and  weakness,  as  loss  of  blood,  or  sor- 
row, for  instance,  softens  us;  and  he  was  still  more  so 
because  he  anticipated  a  mild,  gentle  day.  We  love 
much  more  warmly  while  cherishing  the  intention  of 
giving  pleasure  than  an  hour  afterwards,  when  we  have 
given  it.  It  was  as  windy  this  morning  as  if  the  breezes 
were  holding  races  or  a  tournament,  or  as  if  -ZEolus  were 
shooting  his  winds  out  of  air-guns.  Many .  therefore 
thought  that  it  was  the  commencement  of  the  earthquake, 
or  that  some  had  already  hung  themselves  from  fright. 
Firmian  met  in  Lenette's  face  two  eyes  from  which  thus 
early  the  warm  rain  of  tears  had  fallen  on  her  first  day. 
She  had  not  in  the  least  guessed  his  love,  or  his  inten- 
tions ;  she  had  not  thought  about  them  at  all ;  but  the 
following  reflection  merely  passed  through  her  mind : 
"  Alas  !  now  that  my  parents  are  dead,  no  one  thinks  any 
more  of  my  birthday." 

It  seemed  to  him  as  if  she  was  preoccupied  by  some- 
thing. She  looked  once  or  twice  inquiringly  into  his 
face,  and  appeared  to  be  cherishing  some  intention ;  he 
therefore  deferred  pouring  out  his  full  bosom,  and  uncov- 
ering the  double  gift.  At  length  she  approached  him 
slowly,  blushing,  and,  with  embarrassment  in  her  manner, 
sought  to  get  his  hand  into  hers,  and  said,  with  downcast 
eyes,  in  which  as  yet  there  was  no  whole  tear,  "  We  will 
be  reconciled  to-day :  if  you  have  given  me  any  pain,  I 
forgive  you  from  my  heart.    Do  the  same  by  me." 

This  address  opened  his  warm  heart,  and  at  first  he 


CHAPTER  X. 


77 


could  only  stammer  out,  as  he  drew  her  to  his  oppressed 
bosom,  "  Forgive  thou  only,  —  ah,  I  love  thee  more  than 
thou  lovest  me ! "  and  here  heavy,  hot  drops,  called  forth 
by  a  thousand  recollections  of  the  previous  days,  poured 
from  his  full,  deep  heart,  as  deep  streams  flow  more 
slowly. 

She  looked  at  him  in  surprise,  and  said,  "  We  are,  then, 
reconciled,  and  it  is  my  birthday  too  to-day ;  but  I  have 
a  very  sad  birthday  !  " 

This  reminded  him  of  his  present.  He  ran  away  and 
brought  the  sewing-cushion  and  the  calico  gown,  and 
also  the  news  that  Stiefel  was  coming  in  the  evening. 
She  now  first  began  to  weep,  and  said,  "  Ah,  you  did 
that  yesterday, —  then  you  knew  of  my  birthday  ?" 

His  manly,  beautiful  soul,  which  did  not  put  a  guard  on 
its  enthusiasm,  like  a  woman's,  told  her  everything,  and 
also  of  his  having  yesterday  subscribed  to  the  burial- 
club,  that  she  might  inter  him  with  less  expense.  Her 
emotion  now  became  as  great  and  visible  as  his  own. 
"  No,  no,"  said  she  at  last ;  "  God  will  preserve  you ! 
But  to-day  —  if  we  only  live  over  to-day  —  what  does 
the  Schulrath  say  about  the  earthquake  ?  " 

"  Be  assured  that  there  will  be  no  earthquake,"  said 
Firmian. 

He  let  her  go  from  his  glowing  heart  unwillingly.  As 
long  as  he  remained  at  home  —  for  it  was  impossible 
far  him  to  write  —  he  gazed  incessantly  into  her  bright 
face,  from  which  all  the  clouds  had  cleared  away.  He 
practised  an  old  trick  upon  himself,  which  I  have  learnt 
of  him ;  when  he  wished  to  love  a  dear  person  very 
dearly,  and  forgive  him  everything,  —  he  looked  long 
into  his  face  ;  for  we,  that  is,  I  and  he,  find  upon  a  hu- 


78     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

man  face,  when  it  is  old,  the  notched  counting-stick  of 
severe  sorrows  which  have  so  rudely  passed  over  it,  and 
when  it  is  young,  it  appears  to  us  like  a  blooming  flower- 
bed on  the  slope  of  a  volcano,  whose  next  eruption  will 
overwhelm  it  with  destruction.  Ah!  either  the  future 
or  the  past  is  written  in  every  face,  and  makes  us,  if  not 
melancholy,  at  least  mild  and  gentle. 

Firmian  would  fain  have  kept  his  restored  Lenette  the 
whole  day  upon  his  heart,  especially  before  the  evening 
came,  and  the  glad  tears  iji  his  eyes  ;  but  to  her,  her  oc- 
cupations were  pauses,  and  her  tear-glands  were  fountains 
of  hunger  as  well  as  fountains  of  the  heart;  however, 
she  had  not  the  courage  to  ask  him  about  the  metallic 
source  of  this  gold-bearing  brook,  on  whose  soft  cradle 
she  was  this  day  rocked ;  but  her  husband  willingly  re- 
vealed to  her  the  secret  of  the  sold  watch.  Marriage 
was  to  him  to-day  what  the  season  before  marriage  is,  — 
a  cembal  d'amour  enclosed  between  two  sounding-boards, 
which,  instead  of  doubling  the  strings,  double  their  me- 
lodious tones.  The  whole  day  was  a  little  piece  cut  out 
of  the  clear  moon,  unveiled  by  any  foggy  atmosphere,  or 
rather,  out  of  the  second  world,  into  which  even  the  in- 
habitants of  the  moon  proceed  from  that  orb.  Lenette, 
by  her  morning  warmth,  resembled  the  so-called  moss- 
grown  violet-stone,  which  yields  the  fragrance  of  a  little 
bed  of  flowers  whenever  it  is  warmed  by  rubbing. 

At  length,  in  the  evening,  the  Schulrath  made  his  ap-# 
pearance,  nervously  embarrassed,  looking  somewhat  proud, 
but  on  proceeding  to  congratulate  Lenette,  unable  to  do 
so  for  tears,  which  were  as  much  in  his  throat  as  in  his 
eyes.  His  embarrassment  concealed  hers.  At  last  the 
opaque  fog  between  them  melted  away,  and  they  could 


CHAPTER  X. 


79 


gaze  upon  each  other  ;  then  they  were  right  joyful.  Fir- 
mi  an  forced  himself  to  feel  contentment,  and  it  entered 
spontaneously  into  the  bosoms  of  the  other  two. 

The  heavy  teeming  storm-clouds  now  hung  less  dense- 
ly over  three  appeased,  consoled  hearts,  the  departing 
threatening  comet  of  the  future  had  lost  its  sword,  and 
already  brighter  and  whiter  sped  onward  into  the  blue 
expanse,  passing  by  more  brilliant  constellations.  In  the 
evening  Leibgeber  sent  a  short  letter,  whose  joy-giv- 
ing lines  adorn  the  evening  of  our  favorite  and  the  next 
chapter. 

And  thus  in  the  brain-chambers  of  the  triple  alliance, 
as  at  this  moment  in  the  reader's,  the  darting,  glancing, 
trembling  flower-pieces  of  the  imagination  grew  into  liv- 
ing blossoms  of  joy,  —  even  as  the  fever  patient  mistakes 
the  waving  flowers  of  his  bed-curtain  for  living  forms. 
Verily  the  winter  night,  like  a  summer  night,  could  scarce- 
ly be  cooled  and  extinguished  on  its  horizon :  and  on 
parting  from  one  another  at  twelve  o'clock,  they  said, 
"  We  were  all  very  happy  ! " 


CHAPTER  XI. 


Leibgeber's  Letter  upon  Fame.  —  Firmian's  Evening 
Chronicle. 


"  Vaduz,  Feb.  2,  1786. 
"  My  Firmian  Stanislaus,  —  I  shall  be  at  Baireuth  in 
May,  and  you  must  also  come  thither.  I  have  nothing 
else  of  importance  to  write  to  you,  but  this  is  important 
enough,  that  I  command  you  to  arrive  at  Baireuth  on 
the  first  day  of  May ;  for  I  have  the  most  mad,  weighty, 
and  unheard-of  project  respecting  you,  as  sure  as  there 
is  a  God  in  heaven.  My  joy  and  your  own  happiness 
depend  on  this  journey.  I  would  reveal  the  secret  to 
you  in  this  letter,  did  it  go  direct  out  of  my  hands  into 
none  others  but  yours.  Come !  you  might  travel  with  a 
certain  Kuhschnappler  Rosa,  who  is  coming  to  fetch  his 
bride  out  of  Baireuth ;  but  if  the  Kuhschnappler,  which 
God  forbid,  should  be  that  Meyern  of  whom  you  have 
written  to  me,  and  should  this  gold-fish  come  swimming 
hither  to  give  his  beautiful  bride  more  coldness  than 
warmth  with  his  dry,  withered  arms,  —  as  snakes  are 


HAVE  cheated  the  reader  in  the  preceding 
chapter  from  pure  love.  Nevertheless  he 
must  still  remain  in  error  unfil  he  has  read 
the  following  short  letter  from  Leibgeber  : 


CHAPTER  XI. 


gl 


placed  round  the  bottles  in  Spain  to  cool  them,  —  I 
will  then  give  her  my  opinion  of  him  when  I  come  to 
Baireuth,  and  insist  upon  it  that  he  is  ten  thousand  times 
better  than  the  Heresiarch  Bellarmin,  who  committed 
adultery  much  oftener  in  the  course  of  his  life,  that  is 
to  say,  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-six  times. 
You  know  that  this  champion  of  the  Catholics  had  a 
crim.  con.  with  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  women.  As  cardinal,  he  wished  to  show  at  the 
same  time  the  possibility  of  Catholic  celibacy,  and  the 
possibility  of  the  papal  description  of  the  harlot,  which 
the  gloss  exalts  to  the  possessor  of  a  regiment  of  twenty- 
three  thousand  men.  I  am  heartily  desirous  of  seeing 
the  Heimlicher  von  Blaise.  Were  he  nearer  to  me,  I 
would  give  him  a  few  hard  thumps  from  time  to  time, 
for  there  is  always  something  sticking  in  his  throat 
which  he  can't  swallow,  —  an  inheritance,  for  instance,  or 
another  person's  house  and  farm.  I  would  give  him, 
I  say,  a  few  hard  knocks  on  the  hollow  of  his  back,  as 
is  the  custom,  in  order  to  cure  him,  and  await  the  issue 
of  the  morsel. 

"  I  have  been  limping  about  everywhere  with  my  pro- 
file scissors  since  we  last  met,  and  am  now  reposing  in 
Vaduz  with  a  studjous  library-loving  count,  who  really 
deserves  that  I  should  love  him  ten  times  more  than  I 
do ;  but  I  have  already  more  than  enough  to  satisfy  the 
heart  in  you,  and  in  general  I  find  the  human  race  and 
the  cheese  of  green  herbs  into  which  it  gnaws  itself 
every  day  more  mouldy  and  rotten.  I  must  tell  you,  the 
Devil  take  fame.  In  a  short  time  I  shall  disappear,  and 
mingle  among  the  people,  and  turn  up  again  every  week 
with  a  new  name,  that  the  fools  may  not  know  me.  0, 

vol.  n.  4*  f 


82      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


there  was  once  a  time,  for  a  few  years,  when  I  wished 
to  be  something,  —  if  not  a  great  author,  at  least  a  ninth 
elector,  —  if  not  laurelled,  at  least  mitred,  —  if  not 
sometimes  a  pro-rector,  frequently  at  least  a  deacon. 
It  would  then  have  afforded  me  pleasure,  had  I  had  the 
most  terrible  pains  from  the  stone,  and  consequently 
proportionately  large  bladder-stones,  in  order  that  I 
might  have  extracted  stones  from  my  bladder  to  build 
up  the  altar  or  temple  of  my  fame  still  higher  than  the 
pyramid  which  Ruysch  piled  up  in  the  cabinet  of  natural 
history  with  the  forty-two  bladder-stones  of  an  honest 
woman.*  Siebenkäs  !  at  that  time  I  would  have 
wreathed  myself  a  thorny  philosopher's  beard  of  wasps, 
as  Wildau  did  of  bees,  only  to  become  known  by  it.  '  I 
grant,'  I  then  said,  '  it  is  not  the  good  fortune  of  every 
child  of  clay,  and  he  ought  not  therefore  to  expect  it, 
that  a  town  should  kill  him  like  Mr.  Romuald  (as  is  re- 
lated by  Bembo  in  his  life),  in  order  to  steal  his  holy 
body  as  a  relic  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that,  without  being 
wanting  in  humility,  a  man  may  desire  that  a  few  hairs 
should  be  plucked,  if  not  out  of  his  fur-coat,  *as  hap- 
pened to  Voltaire  in  Paris,  at  least  out  of  his  skull,  as 
a  souvenir,  by  those  who  know  how  to  appreciate  him  ; 
I  refer  more  especially  to  the  reviewers.'  Thus  I  then 
thought ;  but  I  now  think  more  wisely.  Fame  merits  no 
fame. 

"  Once,  on  a  cold,  wet  evening,  I  sat  out  of  doors  on 
a  milestone,  and  looked  at  myself,  and  said,  Well,  in 

*  Diet,  des  Merveilles  de  la  Nature,  par  Ligaud.  The  manner  in 
which  an  Egyptian  queen  built  up  a  pyramid  of  loose  stones,  higher 
indeed,  but  with  less  pain  than  the  above-mentioned  woman,  is  well 
known,  and  does  not  belong  to  Ligaud's  Merveilles  de  la  Nature. 


CHAPTER  XI.  83 
• 

sober  earnest,  what  can  be  made  of  you  ?  Is  the  path 
open  to  you  to  become  secretary  of  war  to  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  and  historiographer  to  the  Emperor  Charles 
V.,  like  the  late  Cornelius  Agrippa  ?  *  Can  you  raise 
yourself  to  the  rank  of  syndic  and  advocate  of  the  city 
of  Metz  ?  Can  you  become  body-physician  to  the 
Duchess  of  Anjou,  —  a  professor  of  theology  in  Padua  ? 
Do  you  observe  that  the  Cardinal  of  Lothringen  is  as 
willing  to  become  godfather  to  your  child  as  he  was  to 
the  son  of  Agrippa  ?  And  would  it  not  be  ridiculous  if 
you  were  to  give  out  and  boast  that  a  margrave  in  Italy, 
the  king  of  England,  the  Chancellor  Mercurius  Gatinaria, 
and  Margarita,  princess  of  Austria,  all  desired  to  engage 
you  in  their  service  in  the  same  year  ?  Would  it  not  be 
ridiculous,  and  a  lie  into  the  bargain,  not  to  speak  of  the 
difficulty  of  the  thing,  inasmuch  as  all  these  people  ex- 
ploded, as  sleep-powder  of  death  at  Mklausruhe,  many 
years  before  you  flared  up  as  priming  and  detonating 
powder  of  life  ?  In  what  known  work,  I  pray  you,  does 
Paulus  Jovius  call  you  a  portentosum  ingeniam,  and  what 
other  author  reckons  you  among  the  clarissima  sui  sce- 
culi  lumina  ?  Would  it  not  have  been  mentioned  by 
Schröckh  and  Schmidt,  in  their  History  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, if  you  had  stood  in  extraordinary  credit  with  four 
cardinals  and  five  bishops,  and  with  Erasmus,  Melancthon, 
and  Capellanus  ?  Even  supposing  I  were  really  resting 
under  the  same  great  bower  and  shrub  of  laurel-crowns 
as  Cornelius  Agrippa,  the  same  would  happen  to  me  as 
to  him.    We  should  both  rot  in  obscurity  underneath 

*  This  and  what  follows  about  Agrippa,  what  he  became  and  pos- 
sessed, is  in  Naude*  (Treatise  of  the  Learned  Men  who  were  held  for 
Sorcerers),  under  the  name  Agrippa. 


84      FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

the  foliage,  and  no  one  would  come  for  centuries  to  lift  up 
the  branches  and  take  a  peep  at  us  two. 

"  It  would  still  less  avail  me  were  I  to  manage  matters 
more  cleverly,  and  get  myself  praised  in  an  appendix  to 
the  general  German  library ;  for  I  might  stand  for  years 
with  my  laurel-wreath  on  my  hat,  in  this  cool  pocket- 
pantheon,  in  my  niche  among  the  greatest  scholars,  who 
reclined  or  sat  around  me  on  their  state-beds,  —  for  years, 
1  say,  we  crowned  ones  might  stand  together,  all  alone 
in  our  temple  of  fame,  ere  any  one  opened  the  door  and 
looked  in  upon  us,  or  came  in  and  kneeled  before  me  ; 
and  our  triumphal  chariot  would  only  be  a  wheelbarrow, 
from  time  to  time,  on  which  the  garnished  temple,  with 
all  its  riches,  was  wheeled  to  an  auction. 

"  However,  I  should  perhaps  raise  myself  above  all 
this,  and  make  myself  immortal,  could  I  but  indulge  *a 
faint  hope  that  my  immortality  would  come  to  the  ears 
of  others  beside  those  who  were  still  denizens  of  mortal- 
ity. But  can  I  feel  encouraged  when  I  perceive  that  it 
is  precisely  to  the  most  celebrated  personages,  over  whose 
faces  the  laurel-wreath  yearly  grows  thicker  in  their  cof- 
fins, as  the  rosemary  over  others,  I  remain  an  inner,  un- 
known Africa?  especially  to  a  Ham  and  Japheth,  —  to 
Absalom  and  his  father,  —  to  the  two  Catos,  —  the  two 
Antonini,  —  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  —  the  seventy  interpret- 
ers and  their  wives,  —  to  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece, 
—  even  to  such  simple  fools  as  Taubmann  and  Eulen- 
spiegel  ?  When  a  Henri  IV.,  and  the  four  Evangelists, 
and  Bayle,  who  knows  all  the  scholars  in  the  world,  and 
the  lovely  Ninon,  who  knows  them  still  better,  and  the 
sorrow-laden  Job,  or,  at  least,  the  author  of  Job,  —  are 
ignorant  that  a  Leibgeber  ever  existed ;  when  I  am  and 


CHAPTER  XI. 


»5 


remain  to  a  whole  former  world  —  that  is,  to  6,000 
years,  full  of  great  men  and  nations  —  nothing  but  a 
mathematical  point,  an  invisible  darkness,  a  miserable 
ne  sais  quoi,  —  I  don't  see  how  posterity,  in  which,  per- 
haps, there  may  not  be  much,  or  the  next  6,000  years, 
can  afford  me  compensation. 

"  Besides,  I  cannot  know  what  glorious  heavenly  hosts 
and  archangels  live  upon  other  universes,  and  little 
spheres  of  the  milky-way,  —  this  paternoster  rosary  of 
globes,  —  seraphs,  in  comparison  with  whom  I  cannot  be 
looked  upon  in  any  other  light  than  in  that  of  a  sheep. 
We  souls,  it  is  true,  rise  and  advance  considerably  upon 
the  earth ;  the  soul  of  the  oyster  rises  to  a  frog's,  the 
latter  to  that  of  a  stock-fish ;  the  spirit  of  the  stock-fish 
ascends  into  a  goose,  then  into  a  sheep,  then  is  elevated 
into  an  ass,  or  even  into  an  ape,  —  at  last  (nothing  higher 
can  be  conceived)  into  a  bush-Hottentot.  But  such  a 
long,  peripatetic  climax  only  inflates  a  man  until  he  makes 
the  following  reflection :  We  observe  among  the  animals 
of  a  class,  among  which,  as  among  ourselves,  there  must 
be  geniuses,  good  clear  heads,  and  thorough  blockheads, 
nothing  but  the  last,  or,  at  most,  extremes.  No  class  of 
animals  is  near  enough  to  our  visual  membrane  to  prevent 
our  confounding  the  middle  tints  and  degrees  of  their 
value.  And  thus  it  will  be  with  us,  when  a  spirit,  sitting 
in  heaven,  looks  upon  us  all.  On  account  of  his  remote-  , 
ness,  he  will  find  it  a  difficult  task  (a  vain  one)  to  distin- 
guish a  real  difference  between  Kant  and  his  shaving- 
mirrors  of  Kantites,  between  Goethe  and  his  imitators  ; 
and  the  above-mentioned  spirit  will  scarcely,  or  not  at  all, 
&now  how  to  distinguish  masters  of  faculties  from  dunces, 
professors'  houses  from  madhouses,  —  for  little  steps  are 


86      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


entirely  lost  to  the  vision  of  one  who  stands  upon  a  higher 
step. 

"  But  this  deprives  a  thinker  of  all  pleasure  and  cour- 
age ;  and  may  I  be  hung,  Siebenkäs,  if,  in  such  a  state  of 
affairs,  I  ever  lay  myself  out  to  become  properly  cele- 
brated, or  give  myself  the  trouble  to  pull  down,  or  to 
build  up,  the  most  learned  and  acute  system,  or  write 
anything  longer  than  a  letter.    Thine,  not  mine, 

"  L. 

"  P.  S.  I  would  that  God  would  grant  me  a  second 
life  after  this,  and  that  I  could  occupy  myself  in  the  next 
world  with  realities  ;  for  this  is  really  too  hollow  and  too 
insipid,  a  wretched  Nuremberg  toy,  —  only  the  sinking 
froth  of  a  life,  —  a  leap  through  the  ring  of  eternity,  —  a 
rotten,  ashy  apple  of  Sodom,  the  taste  of  which  I  cannot 
get  out  of  my  mouth,  spit  and  splutter  as  I  may.   Oh ! "  — 

To  such  readers  as  may  find  this  piece  of  humor 
scarcely  serious  enough,  I  will  show  in  some  other  place 
that  it  is  too  much  so ;  and  that  only  an  anxious  bosom 
can  thus  jest,  —  only  a  too  feverish  eye,  round  which  the 
fireworks  of  life  circulate  like  the  flying  sparks  which  pre- 
cede amaurosis,  can  see  and  draw  such  pictures. 

Firmian  understood  all,  especially  at  this  time  

but  I  must  return  to  the  11th  Feb.,  and  almost  take  away 
from  the  reader  the  pleasure  he  must  have  felt  in  sympathy 
with  that  of  the  united  trefoil. 

Lenette's  trembling  request  that  her  husband  would 
forgive  her  was  the  hot-bed  fruit  of  Ziehen's  earthquaking 
prophecy.  She  believed  that  the  ground,  and  she  herself, 
were  about  to  sink  in  and  perish ;  and  at  the  near  ap- 
proach of  death,  whe  already  wagged  his  tiger's  tail,  she 


CHAPTER  XI. 


«7 


offered  her  husband  the  hand  of  Christian  peace.  In 
presence  of  his  disembodied,  beautiful  soul,  hers,  it  is  true, 
poured  out  tears  of  love  and  rapture;  but  she  herself, 
perhaps,  confounded  her  joyful  with  her  loving  emotions, 
pleasure  with  fidelity;  and  the  hope  of  again  seeing  the 
Schulrath,  in  the  evening,  with  her  longing  eyes,  expressed 
itself,  unawares  even  to  herself,  by  a  warmer  love  towards 
her  husband. 

It  is  here  very  necessary  that  I  should  not  withhold 
from  any  man  one  of  my  best  maxims,  which  is,  that,  in 
his  intercourse  even  with  the  best  woman  in  the  world, 
he  should  endeavor  always  carefully  to  discriminate  be- 
tween her  wishes  both  as  to  what  and  whom  she  desires 
at  the  time  being ;  and  it  is  not  always  the  person  who 
thus  discriminates.  In  the  female  heart  there  is  such  a 
flightiness  of  feelings,  such  a  casting-out  of  colored  bub- 
bles, which  reflect  everything,  but  especially  what  is 
nearest,  that,  while  a  woman  under  the  influence  of  emo- 
tion is  shedding  one  tear  for  you  out  of  the  left  eye,  she 
can  go  on  reflecting,  and  sprinkle  one  for  your  predecessor 
or  successor  out  of  the  right.  A  feeling  of  tenderness 
excited  by  a  rival  half  falls  to  the  share  of  the  husband  ; 
and  in  general  a  woman,  even  the  most  sincerely  faithful, 
weeps  more  over  what  she  reflects  upon  than  what  she 
hears. 

It  is  vexatious  that  so  many  men  are  stupid  on  this 
point ;  for  a  woman  who  regards  the  feelings  of  others 
more  than  her  own  is  neither  the  deceiver  nor  the  de- 
ceived, but  the  deception  itself,  both  optical  and  acoustic. 

Such  well-digested  reflections  upon  the  11th  February, 
Firmians  do  not  make  until  the  12th.  Wendeline  loved 
the  Schulrath,  —  that  was  the  fact.    In  common  with  all 


88      FLOWER,  FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

the  wise  women  of  Kuhschnappel,  she  believed  in  the 
Superintendent-General  and  the  kick  he  gave  to  the 
earth,  until,  in  the  evening,  Pelzstiefel  openly  declared 
that  the  opinion  was  impious  ;  then  she  fell  off  from  the 
prophetic  Superintendent,  and  sided  with  the  unbelieving 
worldling,  Firmian.  We  all  know  that  he  was  as  whim- 
sically addicted  to  the  masculine  fault  of  carrying  his  con- 
clusions from  deduction  too  far,  as  she  was  to  the  feminine 
whim  of  persisting  too  long  in  inconsistency ;  it  was, 
therefore,  foolish  in  him  to  hope  to  regain,  by  one  great 
effusion  of  the  heart,  a  friend  who  had  been  imbittered  by 
so  many  outpourings  of  gall.  Not  even  the  greatest  ben- 
efit, not  the  highest  manly  enthusiasm,  can  at  once  tear 
out  an  ill-will  that  has  insinuated  its  thousand  little  root- 
fibres  into  every  corner  of  the  heart.  The  love  lost  by  a 
continued  cooling  can  only  be  regained  by  as  persevering 
a  warming. 

In  short,  it  was  manifest,  after  a  few  days,  that  all  was 
in  the  same  position  as  it  was  three  weeks  before.  Le- 
nette's  love  had  been  so  strengthened  in  its  growth  by 
Stiefel's  absence,  that  it  no  longer  found  room,  with  all  its 
leaves,  beneath  the  glass-bell,  but  grew  out  into  the  open 
air.  The  aqua  toffana  of  jealousy  at  length  circulated 
through  all  Firmian's  veins,  and,  flowing  into  his  heart, 
slowly  consumed  it.  He  was  but  the  tree  on  which 
Lenette  had  inscribed  her  love  to  another,  and  which 
withers  in  consequence  of  the  incisions.  It  had  been  so 
sweet  to  him  to  hope  that,  on  Lenette's  birthday,  the 
recalled  Schulrath  would  close,  or  cover,  the  greatest 
wounds,  while  it  was  he  who,  without  knowing  it,  opened 
them  ever  more  and  more.  But  how  much  this  pained 
the  poor  husband ! 


CHAPTER  XI. 


%9 


Thus  he  became,  at  the  same  time,  both  internally  and 
externally  poorer  and  more  feeble,  and  abandoned  the 
hope  of  seeing  the  1st  of  May  and  Baireuth.  February, 
March,  and  April  swept  over  his  head,  with  heavy,  drip- 
ping clouds,  in  which  there  was  no  blue  opening,  and  no 
evening  red. 

On  the  1st  of  April  he  lost  his  suit  for  the  second  time  ; 
and  on  the  13th,  on  green  Thursday,  he  concluded  for- 
ever his  evening  paper  (so  he  called  his  journal,  because 
he  wrote  it  in  the  evening),  in  order  to  forward  it,  along 
with  as  much  of  his  Devil's  Papers  as  was  finished,  to  the 
faithful  hands  of  his  friend  Leibgeber  in  Baireuth,  instead 
of  his  body,  which  was  soon  about  to  evaporate  ;  for  he 
thought  his  friend  would  prefer  clasping  his  soul,  which 
dwelt  in  the  papers,  to  embracing  his  withered  body,  of 
which  Leibgeber,  indeed,  possessed  a  second  unaltered 
edition,  man  upon  man  as  it  were,  in  his  own  person, 
and  he  could  consequently  have  it  at  any  moment  he 
pleased.  I  do  not  scruple  to  insert  here  unchanged  the 
whole  of  the  concluding  passage  of  the  evening  paper, 
this  song  of  the  swan,  which  was  afterwards  committed  to 
the  post :  — 

"  Yesterday  my  suit  suffered  shipwreck,  in  the  second 
appeal,  or  shallow.  The  defendant's  counsel,  and  the  first 
chamber  of  appeal,  have  brought  up  against  me  an  old 
law,  which  is  valid  not  only  in  the  territory  of  Baireuth, 
but  also  at  Kuhschnappel,  according  to  which  nothing  can 
be  proved  by  depositions  drawn  up  by  a  notary,  —  the 
depositions  must  be  made  before  a  justice  of  the  peace. 
These  two  actions  render  the  up-hill  road  to  the  third 
easier.  On  account  of  my  poör  Lenette,  I  shall  appeal 
to  the  little  senate,  and  my  good  Stiefel  will  advance  the 


90     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


money.  Truly,  the  same  ceremony  must  be  observed 
in  putting  questions  to  the  oracle  of  justice,  as  formerly 
in  submitting  other  questions  to  heathen  oracles.  It  is 
necessary  to  fast  and  mortify  one's  self. 

"  I  am  in  hopes  to  escape  from  the*  state-knaves,*  or 
huntsmen  with  the  hanger  and  blade  of  the  Themis-sword, 
and  through  the  traps  and  nets  of  acts  and  documents,  not 
so  much  by  means  of  my  purse  —  which,  being  stretched 
out  as  thin  as  a  whipping-post,  I  might  draw  through  all 
the  narrow  meshes  of  the  net  of  justice  like  a  leathern  pig- 
tail —  as  with  my  body,  which,  on  approaching  the  lofty 
nets,  will  change  into  the  dust  of  death,  and  will  then  fly 
free  through  and  beyond  all  meshes. 

"  I  will  this  day  withdraw  the  last  hand  from  this 
evening  paper,  ere  it  becomes  a  complete  martyrologium. 
If  life  could  be  given  away,  I  would  give  mine  to  any 
mortal  who  desired  it :  I  would  not,  however,  have  any 
one  suppose  that,  because  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  is 
above  my  own  head,  I  therefore  affirm  that  there  is  an 
eclipse  in  America  too ;  or  that,  because  snow-flakes  are 
falling  before  my  own  nose,  I  believe  that  the  Gold  Coast 
is  snowed  up  likewise.  Life  is  beautiful  and  warm, — 
even  mine  was  so  once.  If  I  should  melt  away  before  the 
snow-flakes,  I  beg  my  heirs,  and  every  Christian,  not  to 
publish  any  part  of  my  '  Selection  from  %the  Devil's 
Papers,'  except  that  which  I  have  copied  out  fairly, 
which  extends  as  far  as  the  '  Satire  upon  Women '  (in- 
clusive). Neither  must  he  publish  any  satirical  idea  he 
may  chance  to  find  in  this  journal,  —  that  I  most  earnest- 
ly deprecate. 

u  If  an  inquirer  into  the  history  of  this  day  or  night 
*  Servants  were  formerly  called  knaves,  —  now  seldom  the  reverse. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


91 


book  should  wish  to  know  what  heavy  weights,  nests,  and 
linen  to  dry  were  suspended  to  my  branches  and  sum- 
mit, that  they  could  so  bend  it  down  ;  and  if  he  is  only 
made  the  more  curious  because  I  have  written  humorous 
satires,  —  although  my  only  object  was  to  support  myself 
by  my  satirical  prickles,  as  by  absorbing  vessels,  like  the 
thistle,  —  I  here  inform  such  inquirer  that  his  curiosity 
seeks  more  than  I  kiiow,  and  more  than  I  am  willing 
to  say;  for  man  and  the  horse-radish  are  hottest  when 
rubbed  and  grated,  and  the  satirist  is  sadder  than  the  wit 
for  the  same  reason  that  the  orang-outang  is  of  a  graver 
disposition  than  the  ape,  because  his  nature  is  more  noble. 
If,  indeed,  this  paper  falls  into  your  hands,  my  Henry, 
my  beloved,  and  you  desire  to  hear  something  of  the 
hail  which  has  fallen,  ever  thicker  and  thicker,  upon  my 
sown-fields,  count  not  the  melted  hail-stones,  but  the 
crushed  stalks.  I  have  nothing  left  that  gives  me  joy 
but  thy  love,  and  nothing  that  stands  erect  near  that. 
Since,  for  more  reasons  than  one,*  I  shall  scarcely  be 
able  to  visit  you  in  Baireuth,  we  will  take  leave  on  this 
page  like  spirits,  and  give  one  another  hands  of  air.  I 
hate  sentimentality;  but  fate  has  at  last  almost  grafted 
it  upon  me;  and  of  the  satirical  Glauber  salt,  which 
is  taken  for  it  at  other  times  with  advantage,  —  even 
as  sheep  which  become  diseased  with  the  rot,  in  damp 
meadows,  are  cured  by  licking  salt,  —  I  swallow  whole 
spoonfuls  almost  as  large  as  that  I  gained  from  the  bird- 
shooting,  but  without  any  perceptible  benefit.  However, 
it  is  a  matter  of  small  moment.  Fate,  unlike  our  penal 
sheriffs'  benches,  does  not  defer  our  execution  until  we 
are  cured.    My  vertigo,  and  other  apoplectic  symjtfoms, 

*  Want  of  money  anrl  health. 


92      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


warn  me  that  the  Galenian*  blood-letting  will  soon  be 
prescribed  to  me  as  a  cure  for  the  nose-bleeding  of  this 
life.  Not  that  I  exactly  desire  it ;  on  the  contrary,  I  am 
vexed  with  a  person  who  immediately  demands  that  des- 
tiny shall  unswaddle  him,  —  for  we  are  swaddled  up  in 
bodies,  and  our  nerves  and  veins  are  the  swathes.  —  as  a 
mother  unswaddles  her  child  because  it  screams  and  has 
the  belly-ache.  I  should  like  to  remain  some  time  longer 
a  swaddled  child  among  children  of  the  rope,f  and  the 
more  so  since  I  have  reason  to  fear  that  I  shall  be  able  to 
make  little  or  no  use  of  my  satirical  humor  in  the  next 
world,  —  but  I  must  go.  After  this  has  taken  place,  I 
would  beg  you,  Henry,  to  come  some  day  to  this  town, 
and  look  upon  the  uncovered  face  of  your  friend,  who 
will  scarcely  again  be  able  to  make  the  Hippocratic 
mien.j  Then,  my  Henry,  when  you  gaze  long  upon  the 
spotted  gray  new-moon  face,  and  reflect  that  little  sun- 
shine fell '  on  it,  either  of  love,  or  of  fortune,  or  of 
fame,  —  then  you  will  not  be  able  to  look  up  to  heaven, 
and  say  to  God,  '  And  at  last,  after  all  his  sorrows,  good 
God,  thou  hast  annihilated  him  !  And  on  his  stretching 
out  his  arms  to  thee  and  thy  universe  in  death,  thou  hast 
crushed  him  here  as  he  lies,  poor  fellow!'  No,  Henry; 
when  I  die,  you  must  believe  in  an  immortality. 

"  Now  when  I  have  finished  writing  this  evening  paper 
I  will  extinguish  the  light,  because  the  full  moon  sjn*eads 
out  broad,  imperial  sheets  full  of  light  in  the  room.  Then, 
because  no  one  is  up  in  the  house  but'  myself,  I  will  seat 

*  A  bleeding  until  fainting  takes  place  is  so  termed, 
f  This  name  was  applied  to  those  who  were  condemned  by  the 
secret  tribunal. 

f  The  countenance  distorted  iu  death  is  termed  the  Hippocratic. 


CHAPTER  XI.  93 

myself  in  the  twilight  stillness,  and  while  I  am  gazing 
at  the  white  magic  in  the  black  magic  of  the  night,  and 
listening  to  yonder  sounds  of  whole  flights  of  birds  of 
passage,  which  come  forth  in  the  clear  blue  moonlit  night 
from  warmer  lands,  into  whose  sister  land  I  am  about  to 
depart,  —  then,  once  more  undisturbed,  I  will  stretch  out 
my  feelers,  as  it  were,  from  this  snail-shell  before  the  last 
frost  closes  it  up.  Henry,  I  will  to-day  clearly  picture  to 
myself  all  that  is  past,  —  the  May  of  our  friendship,  — 
that  evening  when  we  were  too  much  affected,  and  were 
obliged  to  embrace,  —  my  old,  gray  hopes,  which  I  can 
scarcely  recognize,  —  five  old  but  bright,  warm  springs, 
which  arc  yet  cherished  in  my  memory,  —  my  departed 
mother,  who,  when  she  was  dying,  put  a  lemon  into  my 
hands,  which  she  thought  would  be  put  into  her  coffin, 
saying,  '  I  would  rather  weave  the  lemon  into  my  flower- 
wreath  ' ;  and  of  that  future  minute  of  my  death  I  will 
think  when  thy  image  for  the  last  time  on  earth  will  ap- 
pear before  the  broken  eyes  of  my  soul,  and  when  I  shall 
part  from  thee,  and  with  a  dark  inward  sorrow  which  can 
no  longer  send  a  tear  into  the  cold,  glazed  eyes,  disappear- 
ing and  darkened,  fall  down  before  thy  shadowy  form, 
and  still  only  call  to  thee  with  a  hollow  voice  out  of  the 
thick  mist  of  death. 

"  Henry,  good  night !  good  night !  Ah,  farewell !  I 
cannot  say  more." 


Exp  of  the  Evening  Paper. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Flight  out  of  Egypt.  —  The  Glory  of  Travelling.  —  The 
Unknown.  —  Baireuth.  —  Baptism  in  the  Storm.  —  Natalie 
and  Hermitage.  —  The  most  important  Conversation  in 
this  Book.  —  The  Evening  of  Friendship. 

NE  day  in  the  Easter  week,  when  Firmian  re- 
turned from  half  an  hour's  excursion  of  pleas- 
ure, full  of  forced  marches,  Lenette  asked  him 
why  •  he  had  not  come  home  sooner.  The 
postman  had  been  with  a  thick  book,  but  had  said  that 
Mr.  Siebenkäs  must  sign  the  receipt  of  the  packet 
himself.  In  a  small  and  humble  household,  such  an  oc- 
currence ranks  with  the  great  events  of  the  worldj  and 
the  principal  revolutions  of  history ;  the  minutes  of  ex- 
pectation now  lay  like  cupping-glasses  and  blisters  on  the 
soul.  At  length  the  yellow-liveried  postman  put  an  end 
to  the  bitter-sweet  throbbing  of  their  arteries.  Firmian 
acknowledged  the  receipt  of  fifty  dollars  ;  while  Lenette 
interrogated  the  messenger,  asking  who  had  sent  it,  and 
from  what  town  it  came.    The  letter  was  as  follows  :  — 

"  My  Siebenkäs,  I  have  received  thy  evening  leaves 
and  Devil's  Papers  in  safety,  the  rest  by  word  of  mouth ! 

"  Postscript.    But,  hear  !  if  you  have  the  least  regard  . 
for  the  waltz  of  my  life,  my  pleasure,  my  cares,  and  my 
aims  ;  if  it  is  not  a  matter  of  the  most  perfect  indifference 


CHAPTER  XII.  95 

to  you  that  I  frank  you,  by  defraying  all  your  expenses 
for  food  and  travel,  as  far  as  Baireuth,  because  of  a  plan 
whose  distaffs  the  spinning-machines  of  Futurity  must 
either  spin  into  the  snares  and  gallows'  ropes  of  my  life, 
or  into  rope-ladders  and  anchor-cables  ;  if  such,  and  other 
things  yet  more  important,  still  possess  the  least  charm 
for  you,  then,  Firmian,  for  Heaven's  sake,  pull  on  a  pair 
of  boots,  and  come  ! " 

"  By  thy  holy  friendship,  I  will  pull  on  a  pair,"  said 
Siebenkäs  ;  "  and  even  though  the  lightning-flash  of  apo- 
plexy should  fall  from  the  blue  sky  of  Swabia,  and  strike 
me  dead  beneath  a  cherry-tree  full  of  blossoms,  nothing 
now  shall  keep  me  back." 

He  kept  his  word ;  for,  six  days  afterwards,  at  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  we  behold  him  ready  to  start,  —  with 
clean  linen  on  his  body  and  in  his  pocket,  a  hat-case  on 
his  head,  which  was  again  secretly  loaded  and  satiated 
witli  an  old  fine  hat,  with  new  boots  on  his  feet  (the  ante- 
diluvian pair,  relieved  from  their  post,  remaining  in  the 
mean  time  in  garrison),  a  watch  that  he  had  borrowed 
from  Pelzstiefel  in  his  pocket,  freshly  washed,  shaved, 
and  combed,  —  standing  near  his  wife  and  his  friend,  who 
this  day  direct  all  their  kind  looks  and  devote  all  their 
polite  attention  to  the  departing  traveller  alone,  and  not  at 
all  to  one  another. 

He  took  leave  of  both  of  them  in  the  night,  intending 
to  pass  it  in  the  great  arm-chair,  and  to  depart  at  three 
o'clock,  whilst  Lenette  was  still  sleeping.  He  appointed 
the  Schulrath  to  the  office  of  treasurer  of  the  Widow's 
Fund  to  the  forsaken  mock-widow,  and  confided  to  him 
the  directorship  of  the  theatre,  or  at  least  the  part  of 
guest,  in  his  little  Covent  Garden  of  Gay's  beggar's 


96      FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

operas ;  the  journal  of  which  I  am  now  editing  for  the 
use  of  half  the  world. 

"  Lenette,"  said  he,  "when  you  require  advice,  apply 
to  Mr.  Schulrath ;  he  will  do  me  the  favor  to  call  on 
you  frequently."  Pelzstief  el  asseverated  in  the  most 
solemn  manner  that  he  would  come  daily.  Lenette  did 
not  accompany  Pelzstiefel  down  stairs  as  usual,  but  re- 
mained in  the  room,  drew  her  hand  out  of  the  well-filled 
purse,  the  starved  coats  of  whose  stomach  had  hitherto 
rubbed  against  one  another,  and  snapped  it.  It  is  scarcely 
important  enough  to  mention,  that  Siebenkäs  begged  her 
to  put  out  the  candle,  and  lay  herself  down  to  rest ;  and 
that  he  gave  her  sweet  face  the  long  parting  kiss,  and 
said  good  night,  and  the  touching  farewell,  almost  beneath 
the  earth-portal  of  dreams,  with  those  feelings  of  redou- 
bled love  which  swell  the  bosom  when  we  part  and  meet. 

The  last  call  of  the  watchman  at  length  drov£  him  out 
of  his  chair  into  the  starlit,  breezy  morning.  But  first  he 
crept  once  more  into  the  chamber,  and  went  up  to  the 
warm,  dreaming,  rosy  girl,  shut  a  window,  from  which  a 
chilling  draught  blew  secretly  on  her  unprotected  bosom, 
and  restrained  himself  from  giving  the  waking  kiss  ;  and 
he  gazed  at  her,  as  well  as  the  starlight  and  pale  aurora 
would  permit,  until  the  thought,  "I  am  looking  at  her 
perhaps  for  the  last  time,"  made  him  turn  away  his  eyes, 
that  were  becoming  too  dim  to  see. 

As  he  passed  through  the  sitting-room,  her  distaff  of 
flax,  with  the  broad  strips  of  colored  paper  she  had 
twined  round  it  for  want  of  ribbon,  and  her  silent 
spinning-wheel,  at  which  she  was  wont  to  work  in  the 
morning  and  evening  hours  when  it  was  not  light  enough 
to  sew,  seemed  as  if  they  were  looking  at  him ;  and 


CHAPTEK  XII. 


97 


when  he  pictured  her  to  himself,  sitting  quite  alone  in  his 
absence,  so  industriously  engaged  at  her  wheel  and  distaff, 
every  wish  in  his  heart  cried  out,  "  O,  may  all  be  well 
with  her,  poor  thing,  now  and  ever,  even  if  I  should  see 
her  no  more ! " 

This  thought  of  the  last  time  gathered  still  more 
strength  out  of  doors,  from  the  slight  vertigo  produced 
by  his  late  excited  feelings,  and  the  interruption  of  his 
night's  rest;  and  from  the  sentiment  of  melancholy 
which  came  over  him  on  looking  back  upon  his  receding 
home  and  the  darkened  city,  upon  the  changing  of  the 
foreground  into  a  background,  and  the  disappearance  of 
all  the  walks  and  heights  on  which,  during  the  past 
winter,  he  had  so  often  walked  his  freezing  heart  into 
warmth.  The  leaf  on  which  he  had  been  crawling 
about  and  feeding,  like  a  caterpillar  or  grub,  fell  down 
behind  him  a  leaf-skeleton.  But  the  first  foreign  spot, 
which  was  as  yet  unmarked  by  any  stations  of  his  suffer- 
ing,* already  drew,  like  the  serpent-stone,  a  few  sharp 
poison-drops  of  sorrow  out  of  his  heart. 

The  flame  of  the  sun  now  shot  up  ever  nearer  to  the 
kindled  morning  clouds  ;  at  length,  in  the  heavens,  in  the 
brooks  and  ponds,  and  in  the  blooming  cups  of  dew,  a 
hundred  suns  arose  together,  while  a  thousand  colors 
floated  over  the  earth,  and  one  pure,  dazzling  white 
broke  from  the  sky. 

As  gardeners  prune  their  flowers  in  the  spring,  so 
Fate  plucked  most  of  the  old,  yellow,  withered  leaves 
from  Firmian's  soul.  The  act  of  moving  rather  dimin- 
ished than  increased  his  giddiness.  A  second  unearthly 
# 

*  Alluding  to  the  stations  or  chapels  on  a  holy  mountain  of  pilgrim- 
age, each  designating  a  different  passion  or  suffering  of  Christ.  —  Tr. 

VOL.  II.  5  G 


98     FLOWEK,  FKUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


sun  arose  in  his  soul,  simultaneously  with  that  in  the 
heavens.  In  every  'valley,  in  every  little  grove,  upon 
every  height,  he  cast  off  some  of  the  confining  rings  of 
the  narrow  chrysalis-case  of  his  wintry  life  and  of  his 
grief,  and  expanded  his  moist  upper  and  lower  wings, 
and  let  himself  float  on  the  May -breezes  with  four  out- 
spread pinions  in  the  blue  sky,  beneath  lower  day-butter- 
flies, and  above  loftier  flowers. 

But  how  powerfully  his  excited  life  began  to  ferment 
and  bubble  up  within  him,  when,  ascending  out  of  the 
diamond-pit  of  a  valley  full  of  shadows  and  drops,  he 
made  a  few  steps  beneath  the  heaven-gate  of  spring! 
It  seemed  as  if  an  almighty  earthquake  had  forced  up 
from  the  ocean,  yet  dripping,  a  new-created  blooming 
plain,  stretching  out  beyond  the  bounds  of  vision,  with 
all  its  young  instincts  and  powers ;  the  fire  of  earth 
glowed  beneath  the  roots  of  the  immense  hanging  gar- 
den, and  the  fire  of  heaven  poured  down  its  flames,  and 
burnt  the  colors  into  the  mountain-summits  and  the 
flowers;  between  the  porcelain  towers  of  white  moun- 
tains the  colored,  blooming  heights  stood  as  thrones  of 
the  Fruit-Goddess;  over  the  far-spread  camp  of  pleas- 
ure, blossom-cups  and  sultry  drops  were  pitched  here 
and  there,  like  peopled  tents ;  the  ground  was  inlaid 
with  swarming  nurseries  of  grasses  and  little  hearts  ;  and 
one  heart  detached  itself  after  the  other  with  wings,  or 
fins,  or  feelers,  from  the  hot  breeding-cell  of  nature,  and 
hummed,  and  sucked,  and  smacked  its  little  lips,  and 
sung ;  and  for  every  little  proboscis  some  blossom-cup  of 
joy  was  already  open.  The  darling  child  of  the  infinite 
mother,  man,  alone  stood,  with  bright,  joyful  eyes,  upon 
the  market-place  of  the  living  city  of  the  sun,  full  of 


CHAPTER  XII. 


99 


brilliancy  and  noise,  and  gazed  delighted  around  him 
into  all  its  countless  streets ;  but  his  eternal  mother 
rested  veiled  in  immensity  ;  and  only  by  the  warmth 
which  went  to  his  heart  did  he  feel  that  he  was  lying 
upon  hers. 

Firmian  rested  in  a  peasant's  cottage  after  this  two 
hours'  intoxication  of  his  heart.  The  foaming  spirit  of 
this  cup  of  joy  mounted  more  readily  into  the  heart  of 
a  sick  man  like  himself,  than  into  the  heads  of  other 
sick  persons.  When  he  again  went  forth,  the  brilliancy 
•  sobered  into  brightness,  his  enthusiasm  into  cheerfulness  ; 
every  red,  floating  lady-bird,  and  every  red  church-roof, 
and  every  flowing  stream,  which  glistened  and  threw  off 
sparks  and  stars,  cast  joyful  lights  and  deep  colors  upon 
his  soul.  When  he  hear^d  the  shouts  of  the  charcoal- 
burners,  the  resounding  of  the  whips,  and  the  crashing 
of  falling  trees  in  the  loud-breathing  and  snorting  woods, 
and  then  a^ain  came  forth  and  saw  the  white  chateaux 
and  roads,  which,  like  constellations  of  milky-ways, 
crossed  the  dark  ground  of  green,  and  the  beaming  cloud- 
flakes  in  the  deep  blue,  and  flashing  sparks,  now  drop- 
ping from  trees,  now  shooting  upwards  from  the  brooks, 
now  gliding  over  distant  saws,  —  then  no  foggy  angle  of 
his  soul,  no  dark  corner,  was  without  its  sunshine  and 
spring :  the  moss  of  gnawing,  consuming  care,  which 
grows  only  in  the  damp  shade,  fell  off  from  his  bread 
and  liberty  trees  under  the  free  sky ;  and  his  soul  could 
not  but  chime  in  with  the  thousand  choral  voices  which 
hovered  and  buzzed  around  him,  and  unite  in  their  song, 
—  u  Beautiful  is  life,  —  beautiful  is  youth,  —  and  most 
beautiful  of  all  is  spring  ! " 

The  past  winter  lay  behind  him  like  a  dark,  frozen- 


IOO    FLOWER,  PRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


up  south  pole.  The  imperial  market-town  lay  beneath 
him  like  a  dreary,  deep  school-dungeon,  with  damp, 
dripping  walls.  Above  his  room  alone  hung  a  few 
cheerful  gleams  of  sunshine  ;  and  he  pictured  to  himself 
his  Lenette  in  it,  as  despotic  mistress,  who  to-day  could 
cook,  wash,  and  talk  as  she  pleased,  and  would  besides 
all  the  day  long  have  her  head  and  hands  full  of  the 
pleasure  that  was  to  come  in  the  evening.  He  did  not 
grudge  her,  in  her  narrow  egg-shell,  sulphur-hut,  and 
chartreuse,  the  brightness  which  the  entering  angel  Pelz- 
stiefel  would  bring  with  him  into  her  Peter's  prison. 
"  Ah,  in  God's  name,"  thought  he,  "  let  her  be  as  joyful 
to-day  as  I  am,  and  still  more  so,  if  possible." 

The  more  villages  he  passed,  with  their  strolling 
players,  the  more  theatrical  lifjg  appeared  to  him.*  His 
burdens  became  actors'  parts  and  Aristotelian  problems, 
his  clothes  opera-dresses,  his  new  boots  buskins,  his  purse 
a  theatrical  cash-box,  and  one  of  the  sweetest  recogni- 
tions on  the  stage  was  preparing  for  him  in  the  bosom 
of  his  beloved  friend. 

At  half  past  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  in  a  Swa- 
bian  village,  of  which  he  did  not  even  ask  the  name, 
everything  in  his  soul  melted  into  water,  —  into  tears,  — 
so  that  he  himself  wondered  at  his  own  emotion.  From 
the  neighborhood,  one  would  rather  have  presumed  a 
contrary  effect.  He  stood  near  an  old  and  crooked 
hawthorn,  with  a  withered  top ;  the  peasant-women 
were  watering  some  linen,  glittering  in  the  sunlight  on 
the  common,  and  throwing  chopped  eggs  and  nettles 

*  Every  journey  changes  the  village-nationality  and  little-town- 
ism  in  us  into  something  cosmopolitan,  and  into  God-citizenship  (citi- 
zen of  the  town  of  God). 


CHAPTER  XII. 


IOI 


as  food  to  the  yellow,  downy  goslings ;  a  nobleman's 
gardener  was  clipping  the  hedges  ;  and  the  sheep,  which 
were  already  shorn,  were  called  together  around  the 
hawthorn  by  the  Alpine  horn  of  the  shepherd.  All  was 
so  young,  so  sweet,  so  Italian-looking  ;  the  beautiful  May 
had  already  half  or  quite  undressed  everything,  —  the 
sheep,  the  geese,  the  women,  the  horn-blower,  the  hedge- 
clipper  and  his  hedges. 

Surrounded  by  so  smiling  a  scene,  why  did  his  heart 
become  too  softened  ?  Not  so  much  because  he  had 
been  too  joyful  this  whole  day,  as  because  the  shepherd- 
minstrel  with  his  fife  had  called  his  flock  beneath  the 
May-tree.  A  hundred  times  in  his  childhood  Firmian 
had  driven  his  father's  sheep  under  the  crook  of  the 
horn-blowing  shepherd  ;  and  this  Alpine  ranz  des  vetches 
at  once  woke  up  his  rosy  childhood ;  and  it  arose  out  of 
the  morning  dew,  and  out  of  its  bower  of  blossom-buds 
and  sleeping  flowers,  and  came  up  to  him  heaven-like, 
and  smiled  on  him  innocently  with  its  thousand  hopes, 
and  said  :  "  Look  at  me,  how  beautiful  I  am !  we  have 
played  together ;  once  I  gave  thee  jso  much,  —  great 
kingdoms,  and  meadows,  and  gold,  and  a  beautiful  long 
paradise  behind  the  mountain  ;  but  now  thou  hast  noth- 
ing left,  and  thou  art  besides  so  pale.  Come  and  play 
with  me  again ! "  O,  who  is  there  among  us  in  whom 
childhood  is  not  a  thousand  times  awakened  by  music  ? 
And  she  speaks  to  him,  and  asks  him,  "  Have  not  the 
rose-buds  yet  opened  that  I  gave  thee  ?  "  —  Ah  !  yes,  in- 
deed, they  have  opened ;'  but  they  were  white  roses  ! 

The  evening  closed  the  honey-cells  of  his  joy-flowers 
with  their  leaves,  and  the  evening  dew  of  melancholy 
fell  upon  his  heart,  colder  and*  more  abundantly  the 


I02    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


longer  he  walked.  Just  before  sunset  he  came  to  a 
village  ;  but  whether  it  was  Honbart,  or  Honstein,  or 
Jaxheim,  is,  alas !  as  if  scratched  out  of  my  memory : 
this  much,  however,  I  may  say  for  certain,  that  it  was 
one  of  the  three,  because  it  was  situated  on  the  river 
Jagst,  in  the  territory  of  Anspach,  on  the  borders  of 
Elhvangen.  His  night-quarters  smoked  before  him  in 
the  valley.  Before  he  entered,  he  laid  himself  down  on 
a  hill,  under  a  tree,  whose  leaves  and  branches  were  a 
choir  of  singing-beings ;  not  far  from  it,  the  tinsel  of  a 
trembling  piece  of  water  glittered  in  the  evening  sun ; 
and  the  gilded  foliage  and  the  white  blossoms  fluttered 
above  him,  like  the  grass  round  flowers.  The  cuckoo, 
which  is  his  own  sounding-board  and  his  own  multi- 
farious echo,  spoke  to  him  from  the  dark  tree-tops  with 
his  sad,  complaining  voice.  The  sun  melted  away,  the 
shadows  threw  a  deeper  mourning-crape  over  the  bright- 
ness of  day  ;  and  he  asked  himself,  "  What  is  my  Lenette 
doing  now  ?  and  who  will  be  with  her  ?  " 

And  here  the  thought,  "  I  have  no  loved  one  to  go 
hand  in  hand  with  me !  "  fell  like  ice  upon  his  heart  ; 
and  when  he  pictured  to  himself  the  beautiful,  tender 
female  soul,  which  he  had  often  invoked,  but  never  seen, 

—  to  which  he  would  willingly  have  sacrificed  so  much, 

—  not  only  his  heart,  not  only  his  life,  but  all  his  wishes, 
all  his  whims,  —  he  walked  down  the  hill,  indeed,  with 
swimming  eyes,  which  he  vainly  attempted  to  dry.  But 
at  least  every  good  female  soul  that  reads  this  story, 
and  has  loved  in  vain,  and  become  impoverished  in  love, 
will  pardon  him  these  burning  drops ;  for  they  have 
experienced  how  the  inner  man  journeys,  as  it  Were, 
through  a  wilderness  traversed  by  a  poisonous  Samiel- 


CHAPTER  XII. 


wind,  in  which,  struck  by  the  blast,  lie  scattered  lifeless 
forms,  whose  arms  detach  themselves  from  the  crumbling 
breast  when  touched  by  the  living  being  who  would 
press  them  to  his  own  warm  bosom.  But  you,  in  whose 
hands  so  many  a  heart  has  become  cold,  from  fickleness 
or  the  frost  of  death,  you  should  not  complain,  like  the 
lonely,  who  never  lost  anything  because  they  never  won 
anything,  and  who  yearn  after  an  eternal  love,  of  which 
not  even  a  temporal  delusive  image  was  ever  sent  to 
console  them. 

Firmian  brought  to  his  night-quarters  a  calm,  tender 
soul,  which  healed  itself  in  dreams.  When  he  lifted  tip 
his  gaze  from  his  slumbers,  the  constellations,  which 
were  framed  by  his  window,  twinkled  lovingly  upon  his 
glad,  bright  eyes,  and  beamed  down  upon  him  the  astro- 
logical prophecy  of  a  cheerful  day.  He  fluttered  up  out 
of  the  furrow  of  his  bed  with  the  first  lark,  and  with  as 
many  shakes  of  song,  and  as  much  vigor.  To-day, 
when  fatigue  plucked  the  bird-of-paradise  wings  out  of 
his  imagination,  he  could  not  quite  quit  the  territory  of 
Anspach. 

The  following  day  he  reached  the  county  of  Bamberg, 
leaving  Nuremberg,  and  its  pays  coutumiers  and  pays  du 
droit  ecrit,  to  the  right.  His  road  led  from  one  paradise 
to  another.  The  plain  seemed  to  J>e  composed  of  gar- 
dens inlaid  with  mosaic  ;  the  mountains  seemed  to  kneel 
down  upon  the  earth,  that  man  might  the  more  easily 
mount  upon  their  backs  and  humps  ;  the  leafy  woods 
were  spread  around  like  garlands  on  a  festal  day  of 
nature  ;  and  the  sinking  sun  often  gleamed  behind  the 
trellis  of  an  arbor,  upon  the  slope  of  a  hill,  like  a  purple 
apple  in  a  network  fruit-dish. 


I04    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

In  this  dell,  one  would  have  enjoyed  taking  a  siesta ; 
in  that,  a  breakfast ;  in  yonder  brook,  to  see  the  moon 
reflected  when  she  stood  in  the  zenith,  —  at  her  rising, 
behind  those  trees  ;  beneath  that  height  of  Streitberg, 
to  watch  the  sun  when  it  enters  a  green  trellis-bed  of 
trees. 

As  he  arrived  at  Streitberg,  where  all  the  above- 
mentioned  pleasures  might  be  enjoyed  at  once,  the  fol- 
lowing day  at  noon,  supposing  him  to  be  as  good  a 
pedestrian  as  his  historian,  he  could  easily  have  seen, 
towards  evening,  the  towers  of  Baireuth  don  the  red  robe 
of  the  evening  aurora ;  but  he  would  not.  He  said  to 
himself :  "  I  should  indeed  be  a  fool  to  break  into  the 
first  hour  of  the  most  delightful  of  meetings  so  dog-tired 
and  dried  up,  and  thus  deprive  myself  and  him  (Leibge- 
ber)  of  all  sleep,  and,  in  the  end,  of  half  the  pleasure  (for 
what  could  we  talk  about  to-day?).  No;  rather  let  it 
be  to-morrow  morning  early,  at  six  o'clock,  that  we  may 
have  a  whole  day  before  us  for  our  millennium.'* 

He  therefore  passed  the  night  in  Fantaisie,  —  an  arti- 
ficial vale  of  pleasure,  and  roses,  and  flowers,  about  two 
miles  from  Baireuth.  It  is  with  regret  I  find  myself 
obliged  to  lay  aside  the  paper  model  of  this  miniature 
valley,  until  a  more  convenient  place  presents  itself  to 
fix  it  up  in.  But  so  it  must  be  ;  and  if  I  should  find  no 
other,  there  is  always  a  wide  space  open  to  me  at  the  end 
of  the  book,  before  the  bookbinder's  page. 

Firmian  walked  on,  side  by  side  with  bats  and  cock- 
chafers, the  advanced  guard  and  outposts  of  a  fine  day, 
and  behind  the  inhabitants  of  Baireuth,  who  had  just 
concluded  their  Sunday,  and  ascensign  into  heaven.  It 
was  the  7th  of  May,  and  indeed  so  late,  that  the  moon 


CHAPTER  XII. 


105 


in  her  first  quarter  could  cast  the  profile  of  all  the  blos- 
soms and  branches  upon  the  green  ground.  At  this  late 
hour,  then,  Firmian  ascended  an  eminence  from  which 
lie  could  look  down  with  tears  and  joy  upon  Baireuth, 
now  softly  covered  with  the  bridal  night  of  spring,  and 
embroidered  with  Luna's  spangles,  —  Baireuth,  where 
the  beloved  brother  of  his  soul  dwelt  and  thought  of 

him  In  his  name,  1  can  affirm  it  with  a  "verily" 

that  he  had  almost  been  tempted  to  follow  my  example  ; 
for,  with  such  a  warm,  bubbling  heart,  —  in  such  a  night, 
adorned  at  once  with  gold  and  silver  and  azure,  —  I 
myself,  before  doing  anything  else,  would  have  made 
a  leap  into  the   "  Sun "  hotel,  and  upon  the  heart  of 

my  never-to-be-forgotten  friend  Leibgeber  But  he 

turned  back  into  the  odor-breathing  Capua ;  and,  more- 
over, in  this  short  interval  before  his  evening  meal  and 
evening  prayers,  and  just  as  he  was  passing  near  a 
dry  basin,  inhabited  by  stone  water-gods,  he  met  with 
nothing  less  than  an  agreeable  adventure,  which  I  will 
relate. 

Against  the  walled  bay  stood  a  female  figure,  entirely 
clad  in  black,  with  a  white  veil,  holding  a  faded  nosegay 
in' her  hand,  the  flowers  of  which  she  was  turning  over 
with  her  fingers.  She  stood  averted  from  him  towards 
the  west,  and  seemed  to  be  looking  partly  at  the  con- 
fused Swissery,  and  the  coral-reef  of  stone  water-horses, 
tritons,  &c,  and  partly  at  the  mock  ruins  of  a  neigh- 
boring temple.  As  he  passed  her  slowly,  he  perceived 
by  a  side-glance  that  she  threw  a  flower,  not  so  much  at 
him  as  over  him,  as  if  this  sign  of  exclamation  were 
meant  to  rouse  a  person  from  his  reverie.  He  looked 
slightly  round,  merely  to  show  that  he  was  awake,  and 


Io6     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

went  up  to  the  glass  door  of  the  artificially  ruined 
temple,  in  order  that  he  might  linger  near  the  enigma. 
Within  the  building  a  pier-glass  opposite  reflected  the 
whole  middle  and  foreground  behind  him,  together  with 
the  fair  unknown,  reversed  into  the  green  perspective 
of  a  long  background.  Firmian  observed  in  the  mirror 
that  she  threw  the  whole  nosegay  at  him,  and,  upon 
this  falling  short  of  the  mark,  at  last  rolled  an  orange, 
which  she  had  kept  back,  up  to  his  feet.  He  turned  and 
smiled,  when  a  soft  but  hurried  voice  said,  "  Do  you 
not  know  me  ?  "  He  answered,  "  No."  And  before  he 
had  added,  more  slowly,  "  I  am  a  stranger,"  the  unknown 
had  approached  nearer,  and,  having  hastily  drawn  the 
Moses-veil  from  her  face,  asked,  in  an  elevated  tone,  "And 
not  yet  ?  "  And  a  female  head,  which  might  have  been 
sawn  off  the  neck  of  the  Vatican  Apollo,  and  softened 
only  by  eight  or  ten  feminine  traits  and  a  narrower  fore- 
head, shone  before  him,  like  a  marble  head  before  the 
blaze  of  a  torch. 

Upon  his  adding  that  he  was  a  stranger,  and  after  she 
had- gazed  at  him  still  closer,  unveiled,  and  had  again  let 
fall  the  gauze  pdrtcullis,  (all  which  movements  occupied 
a  shorter  space  of  time  than  one  beat  of  the  pendulum  of 
an  astronomical  clock,)  she  turned  away,  saying,  in  a  tone 
which  expressed  less  of  embarrassment  than  of  a  woman's 
wounded  feeling,  "  Pardon  me  !  " 

He  was  about  to  follow  her  almost  mechanically. 
In  lieu  of  stone  goddesses,  he  now  adorned  the  whole 
"  Fantaisie "  with  nothing  but  plaster-of-Paris  casts  of 
the  departed  head,  which  had  only  three  pleonasms  in  its 
face  ;  too  much  red  on  the  cheeks,  too  much  curve  of  the 
nose,  and  too  much  running  fire  and  fuel  in  the  eyes. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


107 


Such  a  head,  thought  he,  if  properly  dressed,  might  ex- 
hibit itself  in  a  front  box,  near  the  sparkling  head  of  a 
queen,  and  that  too  without  any  disadvantage,  and  it 
might  contain  as  much  philosophy  as  it  could  rob. 

It  is  pleasant  to  take  such  a  charming  adventure  with 
us  into  our  dreams,  because  it  resembles  a  dream  itself. 
May  now  stuck  little  flower-sticks  close  to  Firmian's 
drooping,  trembling  flowers,  as  she  had  done  to  those 
around  him,  and  tied  them  on  loosely.  O,  how  brightly 
do  even  little  joys  beam  upon  a  soul  which  stands  on  a 
ground  darkened  by  the  clouds  of  sorrow,  —  as  stars 
come  forth  from  the  empty  sky  when  we  look  up  to  them 
from  a  deep  well  or  from  cellars  ! 

On  the  following  glorious  morning  the  earth  arose 
with  the  sun.  His  ever-faithful  friend  filled  his  head  and 
heart  more  than  the  unknown  of  yesterday,  although, 
for  curosity's  sake,  he  selected  the  way .  by  the  sea  and 
by  the  shell  out  of  which  the  Venus  had  arisen  ;  but  to 
no  purpose  ;  and  he  waded  through  the  moist  radiance 
and  foggy  vapor  of  the  glistening  silver  mine,  and  tore 
away  from  the  blossoms  on  which  they  hung  suspended 
the  strings  of  gossamer,  strung  with  seed-pearls  and 
pearls  of  dew,  and  pushing  aside  the  branches,  which 
were  the  keys  of  an  harmonica  set  in  carved  foliage  and 
blossoms,  he  swept  away,  in  his  haste  to  climb  to  his 
yesterday's  Olympus,  chilled  butterflies,  and  blossoms, 
and  drops.  He  mounted  the  platform  of  pleasure,  and 
the  burning  theatre-curtain  of  fog  hung  over  Baireuth. 
The  sun  stood  as  king  of  the  stage  upon  the  mountain, 
and  looked  down  upon  the  burning  of  the  variegated 
veil,  whose  fluttering,  sparkling  tinder-pieces  were  blown 
and  scatte#d  by  the  morning  breezes  over  the  flowers 


io8    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

and  gardens.  Amid  this  radiance  he  entered  the  seat  of 
pleasure,  the  town  where  his  beloved  friend  resided,  and 
all  its  buildings  seemed  to  him  like  bright,  enchanted 
castles  of  air,  fallen  from  the  ether,  and  solidified.  It 
was  strange,  but  on  seeing  some  curtains  drawn  in,  with 
which  the  draught  of  the  street  was  toying,  as  they 
hung  out  of  the  window,  he  could  not  help  imagining 
that  it  was  done  by  the  unknown,  though  at  this  early 
hour,  for  it  was  only  eight  o'clock,  a  lady  of  Baireuth 
could  as  little  have  concluded  her  flower-sleep  as  the 
red  henbit,  or  the  Alpine  pippau.*  Every  new  street 
excited  his  beating  heart  ;  a  slight  deviation  from  the 
right  road  was  agreeable  to  him,  as  serving  to  delay  or 
increase  his  delight.  At  last  he  came  to  the  Sun  hotel, 
near  his  own  sun,  —  to  the  metal  sun  which  attracted 
this  wandering  star  as  well  as  the  astronomical  one.  He 
asked  below  the  number  of  Mr.  Leibgeber's  apartment, 
and  was  told  that  he  lodged  at  the  back  of  the  house, 
No.  8,  but  that  he  had  to-day  set  out  on  a  journey 
into  Swabia,  unless  perchance  he  were  still  up-stairs. 
Luckily  some  one  turned  into  the  hotel  from  the  street, 
who  confirmed  the  latter  possibility  by  wagging  his  tail 
before  the  Advocate.  It  was  Leibgeber's  Saufinder.  To 
rush  up-stairs,  to  burst  open  the  door  of  joy,  and  fall 
on  the  beloved  heart,  was  the  work  of  a  moment.  And 
now  the  barren  minutes  of  life  passed  unheard  and  un- 
seen by  the  silent,  close  bond  of  two  mortals.  They 
clung  together  on  the  waters  of  life,  like  two  ship- 
wrecked brothers,  who,  embracing  and  embraced,  swim 
together  in  the  cold  waves,  and  who  have  nothing  left 
save  the  heart  on  which  they  die.    As  yet  they  had  not 

*  The  former  opens  after  eight,  the  latter  at  elevefPo'clock. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


109 


spoken  a  word.  Firmian,  who  had  been  weakened  by  a 
long  period  of  sorrow,  wept  undisguised  in  the  presence 
of  his  recovered  friend.  Henry's  features  were  distorted 
as  by  pain.  Both  had  their  hats  on,  prepared  for  travel. 
Leibgeber,  in  his  embarrassment,  knew  of  nothing  better 
to  hold  by  than  the  bell-rope.    The  waiter  came. 

"  Nothing,"  said  he,  "  but  that  I  am  not  going  away. 
God  grant,  Siebenkäs,"  he  afterwards  added,  "  that  we 
get  entangled  into  a  conversation,  —  pull  me  into  one, 
brother." 

He  could  very  well  commence  with  the  pragmatical 
narration,  "  Nouvelle  du  jour"  or  better,  "  de  Vennui"  in 
short  with  the  town  or  rather  country  news  of  what  he 
had  yesterday  experienced  near  the  veil  of  the  beautiful 
je  ne  sais  quoi. 

"  I  know  her,"  answered  Leibgeber,  "  as  well  as  my 
own  pulse  ;  but  I  would  rather  not  tell  you  anything 
now,  or  I  should  have  to  sit  still  and  wait.  We  will  defer 
everything  until  we  sit  in  the  warm  bosom  of  Abraham, 
in  Hermitage,  which,  after  Fantaisie,  is  the  second  heaven 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Baireuth,  —  for  Fantaisie  is  the- 
first,  and  the  whole  country  the  third." 

They  now  made  an  ascension  into  heaven,  in  every 
subject  of  conversation,  and  in  every  street  through 
which  they  passed. 

• "  You  shall  sooner  knock  off  my  head,  like  a  poppy's, 
from  its  stalk,"  said  Leibgeber,  on  Firmian's  betraying, 
alas  !  as  uncontrolled  a  longing  to  learn  his  s'ercet  *  as 
I  perceive  in  the  reader,  "than  induce  me  to  transfer 
my  mysteries,  either  to-day,  to-morrow,  or  the  day  after 
to-morrow,  from  my  head  into  yours  ;  thus  much  only  I 
may  tell  you,  that  your  Selection  from  the  Devil's  Papers 


no    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

(your  Evening  Chronicle  contains  more  diseased  matter) 
is  quite  divine,  and  very  heavenly,  and  pretty  good,  and 
not  without  its  beauties,  but  perhaps  passable."  .  Leibge- 
ber  then  told  him  how  much  joy  it  had  given  him,  and 
how  it  had  astonished  him  to  find  that  he,  advocate  in  a 
little  town,  enlivened  only  by  the  souls  of  shopkeepers 
and  jurists,  together  with  a  little  appendix  of  high  and 
mighty  government,  should  have  been  able  to  rise  in  his 
satires  to  such  freedom  and  purity  of  art ;  and,  indeed,  I 
myself  have  sometimes  said,  in  reading  the  "  Selection 
from  the  Devil's  Papers,"  that  I  could  not  have  composed 
such  things  even  in  Hof  and  Voigtland,  where  I  have 
written  many  humorous  things.  Leibgeber  put  the  fin- 
ishing touch  to  the  laurel-wreath,  by  assuring  him  that  he 
could  laugh  more  easily  aloud,  and  with  both  lips,  at  the 
world,  en  masse,  than  silently  with  the  pen,  according  to 
the  most  approved  rules  of  art.  Siebenkäs  could  scarcely 
contain  himself  for  joy  at  this  praise ;  but  let  no  one  take 
this  ill  in  the  Advocate,  or  in  any  other  writer,  who,  in 
solitude  and  without  panegyrist,  has  steadfastly  pursued 
.the  honestly  chosen  path  of  art  without  the  support  of 
the  smallest  encouragement,  if,  on  attaining  the  goal,  the 
fragrance  of  a  few  laurel-leaves,  from  a  friend's  hand, 
penetrate  him  like  spice,  and  strengthen  and  reward  him. 
If  even  the  far-famed  and  presuming  require  warmth 
from  the  opinion  of  others,  how  much  more  the  humble 
and  unknown !  Happy  Firmian !  to  what  a  distance, 
deep  fti  the  south-southwest,  did  the  sweeping  storms  of 
thy  days  now  depart ;  and,  as  the  sunbeams  fell  upon 
them,  nothing  could  be  seen  in  them  but  a  gentle,  drop- 
ping rain.  At  the  table  d'hote,  it  gave  him  pleasure  to 
observe  in  his  Leibgeber  how  much  incessant  intercourse 


CHAPTER  XII. 


1 1 1 


with  men  and  cities  loosens  the  tongue  and  opens  the 
head,  though  in  such  cases  a  heart-barrier  frequently  takes 
the  place  of  a  mouth-barrier.  Leibgeber  made  nothing 
of  talking  about  himself,  even  in  a  humorous  manner, 
before  the  most  distinguished  senators  of  government  and 
chancery  officers  who  dined  at  the  Sun  ;  a  subject  which 
the  imprisoned  Advocate  would  scarcely  have  ventured 
upon  even  after  the  first  bottle.  I  will  add  the  conver- 
sation to  my  building,  because  it  made  some  impression 
on  the  Advocate  of  the  Poor,  and  place  over  it  the  in- 
scription : 

Leibgeber's  Table-Talk. 

"  Among  all  the  gentlemen,  Christians,  and  names,  who 
sit  here  at  table  and  stick  in  their  forks,  no  one,  I  fancy, 
was  fashioned  into  one  with  so  much  trouble  as  myself. 
My  mother,  a  native  of  Gascony,  was  going  to  Holland 
by  sea  without  my  father,  who  remained  in  London,  as 
diocesan  of  the  German  congregation.  But  never  did 
the  German  OceanStorm  and  rage  so  fearfully,  since  the 
days  of  a  certain  German  court-councillor,  as  at  the  period 
when  it  was  my  mother's  luck  to  cross  over.  Toss  hell, 
with  its  hissing  brimstone  lake,  molten  copper,  and  plash- 
ing devils,  into  the  cold  sea,  and  observe  the  spluttering, 
roaring,  and  seething  of  the  hell-flames  and  ocean-billows, 
until  one  of  the  two  hostile  elements  has  swallowed  up  or 
overpowered  the  other,  and  you  will  then  have  a  faint, 
but,  during  dinner,  a  sufficiently  vivid  idea  of  the  con- 
founded storm  in  which  I  came  upon  the  sea,  and  into  the 
world.  You  may  imagine,  when  topsail  sheets,  mainsail 
sheets,  the  stays  of  the  topmast,  the  braces  of  the  main- 
yard,  not  to  speak  of  runners  and  other  tackle,  all  of  them 


112     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

things  so  used  to  the  sea,  were  nearly  destroyed,  that  it 
was  nothing  short  of  a  sea-miracle  that  so  tender  a  being 
as  I  then  was  could  commence  his  life  in  such  a  storm. 
I  had  not  then  as  much  flesh  upon  my  body  as  I  have 
now  fat,  and  might  weigh  altogether  about  four  Nurem- 
berg pounds,  which,  if  the  schools  of  anatomy  are  to  be 
depended  upon,  is  now  the  weight  of  the  brain  alone.  I 
was  besides  quite  a  young  novitiate,  who  had  as  yet  seen 
nothing  of  the  world  but  this  devilish  storm,  —  not  so 
much  a  man  of  few  years  as  of  no  years  at  all  (although 
everybody  is  nine  months  older  than  he  is  recorded  to  be 
in  the  parish-register),  delicate,  —  having,  in  opposition  to 
all  medical  rules,  been  kept  too  warm  and  swaddled  for 
the  first  nine  months  of  my  life,  instead  of  being  prepared, 
as  I  ought  to  have  -been,  for  the  cold  air  of  the  world : 
thus,  quarter  grown,  a  tender  flower-bud,  and  liquidly  soft 
as  first  love,  I  did  not  create  any  greater  expectations  in 
such  a  storm  (it  was- with  great  difficulty  that  I  added  my 
squeak  once  or  twice  to  the  roar  of  the  tempest)  than  that 
I  should  be  extinguished  and .  cease  exist  even  before 
it  cleared  up.  The  people  did  not  like  to  let  me  go  out 
of  the  world  without  an  honest  name,  and  altogether  with- 
out Christianity  ;  for,  as  it  is,  one  generally  takes  less  out 
of  the  world  than  one  brings  into  it ;  but  nothing  could  be 
more  difficult  than  for  any  one  to  stand  godfather  upon  a 
tossing  ship,  which  threw  everything  down  that  was  not 
bound  fast.  The  ship's  chaplain  luckily  lay  in  a  ham- 
mock, and  baptized  from  thence  downwards.  My  god- 
father was  the  upper  boatswain,  who  held  me  for  five 
minutes  ;  but  as  he  could  not  stand  alone  steadily  enough 
for  the  baptist  to  touch  the  head  of  the  baptizee  with  the 
water,  he  himself  was  held  by  the  under-barber,  who, 


CHAPTER  XII. 


113 


in  his  turn,  was  fastened  to  a  sparine,  the  latter  to  the 
boatswain's  mate,  the  mate  to  the  coxswain,  and  the 
coxswain  sat  upon  the  lap  of  an  old  sailor,  who  hugged 
him  grimly. 

"  Nevertheless,  as  I  afterwards  learned,  neither  the  ship 
nor  the  child  perished.  But  you  all  perceive  that,  how- 
ever difficult  the  struggle  may  be  for  any  one,  amid  the 
storms  of  life,  become  and  remain  a  Christian,  or  to 
gain  a  name,  either  in  a  directory,  literary  gazette,  in  a 
herald's  office,  or  upon  a  medal,  yet  few  have  ever  found 
it  so  hard  as  I  did  to  get  even  the  first  elements  of  a 
name,  —  the  basis  and  binomic  root  of  a  baptismal  name, 
upon  which  hereafter  the  second  great  name  might  be 
grafted,  and  to  get  what  little  Christianity  a  creature  yet 
to  be  confirmed,  an%  a  catechumen  who  still  sucks  and  is 
silly,  is  able  to  receive.  There  is  only  one  thing  in  the 
world  which  is  more  difficult  to  make,  which  the  greatest 
hero  or  prince  can  only  make  once  in  his  life,  but  which 
no  genius,  not  even  the  thuee  spiritual  electors,  or  the 
German  Emperor  himself,  with  allied^owers,  could  ac- 
complish, even  if  they  were  to  sit  for  years  in  the  mint, 
and  stamp  with  the  newest  coining-machines." 

The  whole  table  d'hote  entreated  him  to  name  what 
it  was  that  was  so  difficult  to  model.  "  It  is  a  crown- 
prince,"  answered  he,  coldly  ;  "  it  is  not  easy,  indeed, 
for  a  reigning  sovereign  to  produce  princes  with  an  ap- 
panage ;  but,  with  all  his  efforts,  even  in  his  best  years, 
he  cannot  produce  more  .than  one  sample  of  a  crown- 
prince  (for  such  a  seedling  is  no  plaything,  "but  rather  the 
principal  work, —  the  mill  and  language-wheel  of  a  whole 
people).  But  gentlemen,  counts,  barons,  chamberlains, 
staff-officers,  and,  more  especially,  quite  common  people 

VOL.  II.  H 


114    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


and  subjects  —  in  shorty  scurvy  creatures  of  this  sort, 
such  a  generatio  cequivoca  —  are  begotten  by  a  prince  so 
easily,  that  he  creates  such  lusus  natura  and  preliminary 
swarms  or  protoplasmata,  in  considerable  numbers,  even 
in  his  earliest  years,  for  his  amusement,  while  in  a  more 
mature  age  he  cannot  succeed  in  producing  a  successor 
to  the  throne.  After  so  many  trial-shots,  and  so  much 
exercise  of  arms,  one  would  have  come  %  the  contrary 
conclusion." 

End  of  Leibgeber's  Table-Talk. 

In  the  afternoon  they  both  entered  the  green  pleasure- 
grounds  of  the  Hermitage,  and  the  avenue  that  led  to  it 
seemed  to  their  joyful  hearts  a  path  cut  through  a  fra- 
grant shrubbery.  The  young  bird  passage,  Spring, 
had  settled  upon  the  plain  around  them,  and  her  unladen 
treasures  of  flowers  lay  scattered  over  the  meadows,  and 
floated  down  the  streams,  and  the '  birds  were  drawn  up- 
wards by  long  sunbeams,  and  the  winged  world  hung 
intoxicated  in  th^sweet  odors  that  were  poured  around. 
Leibgeber  resolved  to  open  his  secret  and  his  heart  this 
very  day  in  Hermitage  ;  but  previously  a  bottle  or  two 
of  wine. 

The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  beg  the  Advocate  to  give 
him  a  short  narration  of  his  adventures  up  to  the  present 
moment,  by  sea  and  by  land.  Firmian  did  so,  but  with 
discretion  ;  he  passed  hastily  over  the  bad  year  of  his 
stomach,  over  his  hard  times,  over  the  figurative  winter 
of  his  life,  upon  whose  snow  he  was  obliged  to  brood  like 
an  ice-bird,  and  over  all  the  cold  north-wind,  which  forces 
a  man,  like  a  soldier  in  winter,  to  bury  himself  in  the 
earth :  he  touched  lightly,  I  say,  upon  all  these  things, 


CHAPTER  XII. 


"5 


and  therein  he  acted  well ;  in  the  first  place,  because  no 
one  deserves  the  name  of  a  man  who  makes  a  greater  fuss 
about  the  wounds  of  poverty  than  a  girl  makes  about 
those  of  her  ears,  since  equally,  in  both  cases,  hooks 
whereby  to  suspend  jewels  are  inserted  into  the  wounds  ; 
secondly,  because  he  wished  to  spare  his  friend  whatever 
sympathetic  repentance  he  might  chance  to  feel  on  ac- 
count of  the  exchange  of  names,  which  was  the  original 
source  of  all  his  springs  of  hunger  ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  his 
intimate  friend,  his  pallid,  withered  face,  and  his  sunken 
eye,  formed  the  frontispiece  of  his  month  of  ice,  and  was 
a  winter-landscape  of  this  snow-covered  portion  of  his 
path  of  life. 

But  when  he  came  to  the  deepest  hidden  wounds  of 
his  soul,  he  could  scarcely  restrain  the  drops  of  blood 
that  rushed^pto  his  eyes,  —  I  mean,  when  he  came  to 
speak  of  Lunette's  hatred  and  love.  While  he  painted 
an  indulgent  picture  of  her  small  love  to  him,  and  her 
great  love  to  Stiefel,  he  used  much  stronger  colors  for 
the  historical  piece  he  painted  of  her  good  behavior  to- 
wards the  Venner,  and  of  Rosa's  corruption  in  general. 

"  When  you  have  finished,"  said  Leibgeber,  "  I  will 
tell  you  that  women  are  not  fallen  angels,  but  falling 
ones.  By  heaven !  they  stick  the  shears,  while  we  stand 
like  patient  sheep  to  be  sheared,  more  frequently  into 
our  skin  than  into  our  wool !  If  I  were  to  go  over  the 
bridge  of  St.  Angelo  in  Rome,  I  should  think  of  women, 
because  there  are  ten  angels  standing  as  statues  upon 
it,  each  one  of  whom  is  represented  with  a  different 
instrument  of  torture,  —  one  with  the  nails,  another  with 
the  reed,  a  third  with  the  dice,  &c.  ;  and  thus  every  one 
holds  in  its  hands  a  different  instrument  for  torturing 


Il6    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

us  poor  lambs  of  God.  Whom  do  you  suppose,  for  in- 
stance, that  your  yesterday's  Palladium,  your  unknown 
beauty,  is  to  bind  with  the  wedding-ring,  as  with  a  nose- 
ring, to  the  marriage  bed-post  ?  But  I  must  first  describe 
her  to  you.  She  is  a  glorious  creature,  —  poetical,  an 
enthusiastical  admirer  of  learned  men  and  the  British, 
consequently  of  me,  and,  on  the  latter  account,  resides 
With  a  noble  English  lady,  who  is  half  companion  to 
Lady  Craven  and  the  Margrave  yonder  in  Fantaisie. 
She  has  nothing,  and  takes  nothing,  is  poor  and  proud, 
thoughtlessly  bold  and  virtuous,  and  is  named  Natalie 
Aquiliana.  Now,  whom  do  you  suppose  she  is  to  marry? 
A  spirit  whose  egg-shell  was  cracked  open  a  few  weeks 
too  soon,  and  who  now,  with  yellow  hairy  feathers,  pips 
at  our  toes  ;  one  who  in  wedding-rings  imitates  Helio- 
gabalus,  who  daily  put  on  a  new  ring  ;  a  flfcow  whom  I 
would  sneeze  over  the  north  pole,  and  wThom  I  need 
describe  least  of  all  to  you,  as  you  have  already  described 
him  yourself,  and  whom  you  know  as  soon  as  I  name 
him.  The  beautiful  creature  is  to  marry  the  Venner 
Rosa  von  Meyern." 

Firmian  did  not  fall  out  of  the  clouds,  but  right  into 
them.  In  short,  the  unknown  Natalie  is  the  niece  of 
the  Heimlicher,  of  whom  Leibgeber  wrote  some  account 
in  a  letter  in  the  first  volume. 

"  Listen  !  "  continued  Leibgeber.  "  I  will,  however, 
let  myself  be  cut  up  and  chopped  into  smaller  crumbs 
than  Great  Poland,*  into  little  particles  such  as  could 
not  cover  a  Hebrew  vowel,  if  anything  comes  of  the 
affair ;  for  I  will  prevent  it." 

*  He  does  not  allude  to  the  last  still  more  particular  analysis  of 
Poland,  but  to  the  first. 


CHAPTER  XII.  117 

Since,  as  is  well  known,  he  spoke  to  the  maiden  every 
day,  and  she  was  devotedly  attached  to  his  spotless  soul 
and  bold  spirit,  all  that  he  would  require,  in  order  to 
break  off  the  new  marriage,  would  be  to  repeat  and  « 
ailu  m  what  Siebenkäs  had  related  of  her  bridegroom 
elect.  His  acquaintance  with  her,  and  his  resemblance 
to  Siebenkäs,  had  occasioned  the  mistake  she  had  made 
yesterday,  in  confounding  Firmian  with  the  person  he 
went  to  meet.  Most  of  my  readers  will  urge  against 
me  and  Leibgeber  the  objection  made,  also  by  the  Ad- 
vocate, that  Natalie's  love  did  not  accord  with  her  char- 
acter, and  that  a  marriage  for  money  was  inconsistent 
with  her  indifference  to  money ;  but,  in  fact,  she  had  as 
yet  seen  nothing  of  the  gaudy  fly-catcher  Rosa,  save 
his  Esau's  hand,  —  that  is,  his  handwriting,  his  Jacob's 
voice.  He  had  written  to  her  nothing  but  irreprehensible, 
sentimental  letters  of  insurance  (papers  full  of  Cupid's 
shafts  and  pins),  and  had  thus  guaranteed  the  paper- 
nobility  of  his  heart.  The  Heimlicher,  besides,  had 
written  to  his  niece,  that  on  St.  Pancras-day,  the  12th 
May  (consequently  in  four  days),  the  Venner  would 
come  and  introduce  himself  to  her,  and  if  she  jilted  him 
she  should  never  again  call  herself  Von  Blaise's  niece, 
but  might  starve,  in  God's  name,  in  her  Schraplau.* 
But,  to  be  quite  honest,  I  have  not  had  above  three  of 
Rosa's  letters,  and  those  scarcely  the  best  specimens, 
more  than  a  minute  in  my  hand,  and  an  hour  in  my 
pocket ;  and,  to  say  the  truth,  they  were  not  bad,  and 
certainly  much  more  moral  than  their  author. 

Just  as  Leibgeber  had  said  h^|rould  act  the  part  of 
consistory,  and  divorce  Natalil^^B  Rosa  even  before 

*  A  little  town  in  the  county  Mansfeld,  belonging  to  the  Elector  of 
Brandenburg. 


Il8    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


they  were  married,  she  drove  up  with  some  of  her 
female  friends,  and  got  out  of  the  carriage  ;  but  instead 
of  accompanying  them  to  the  general  promenade,  she 
-  went  alone  through  a  solitary  side-path  to  the  so-called 
temple.  In  her  haste,  she  had  not  seen  her  friend  Leib- 
geber  sitting  opposite  the  stables  ;  for  the  Baireuth  fre- 
quenters of  "  Hermitage,"  ever  since  the  time  of  the 
Margrave,  have  been  used  to  sit  in  a  little  wood,  always 
cooled  by  shade  and  breezes,  in  front  of  the  extensive 
farm-buildings  and  stables,  having  the  most  beautiful 
prospect  close  behind  their  backs,  for  which  they  can 
easily  change  the  blank  wall,  on  which  the  eye  pastures, 
if  they  only  get  up  and  walk  a  little  beyond  the  wood  on 
either  side. 

Leibgeber  told  the  Advocate  he  would  conduct  him 
to  her  immediately,  as  she  would  be  sitting  in  the  tem- 
ple as  usual,  whence,  over  the  artificial  shrubberies,  she 
enjoyed  the  enchanting  prospect  of  the  city-towers  and 
western  mountains,  in  the  light  of  the  departing  sun.  He 
added,  that  unfortunately  she  paid  too  little  regard  to  ap- 
pearances, going  alone  to  the  summer-house,  and  thereby 
occasioning  considerable  annoyance  to  the  English  lady, 
who,  like  her  countrywomen  in  general,  never  went  any- 
where alone,  and  did  not  even  trust  herself  to  approach 
a  male  wardrobe  without  an  insurance-company  and 
bible-society  of  women.  He  said  he  had  it  from  good 
authority,  that  a  British  lady  never  pictured  a  man  to 
herself  without  at  the  same  time  surrounding  him  by 
the  necessary  images  of  women,  who  might  bridle  and 
restrain  him,  should  tojhappen  to  take  it  into  his  head 
to  conduct  himself  ^^He  four  chambers  of  her  brain 
with  as  much  license  as  if  he  were  at  home. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


II9 


They  found  Natalie  in  the  open  temple,  with  some 
papers  in  her  hand.  "*I  bring  you,"  said  Leibgeber, 
"  our  author  of  the  '  Selection  from  the  Devil's  Papers/ 
which,  as  I  perceive,  you  are  just  now  reading.  Permit 
me  to  introduce  him  to  you." 

Blushing  slightly  at  having  confounded  Firmian  with 
Leibgeber,  in  Fantaisie,  she  said  very  kindly  to  Sieben- 
käs, "  I  could  almost  mistake  you  again,  Mr.  Advocate, 
for  your  friend,  and,  indeed,  in  a  mental  point  of  view. 
Your  satires  are  often  just  like  his,  and  it  is  only  the 
more  serious  appendices,  which  I  am  just  now  reading, 
and  which  please  me  much,  that  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  composed  by  him."  * 

I  have  no  leisure  at  this  moment  to  defend,  in  long 
printed  pages,  Leibgeber's  unauthorized  communication 
to  one  friend  of  the  papers  of  another.  In  answer  to 
such  of  my  readers  as  may  exact  and  observe  scrupulous 
delicacy  in  these  matters,  suffice  it  to  say,  that  Leibgeber 
took  for  granted  that  every  one  who  loved  him  should 
help  to  love  his  other  friends ;  and  that  Siebenkäs,  and 
even  Natalie,  looked  upon  his  bold  communication  in  no 
other  light  than  that  of  a  friendly  circular,  and  of  his  I 
presupposing  a  triumvirate  of  sympathy. 

Natalie  looked  kindly  and  comparingly  at  both,  espe- 
/  cially  at  Leibgeber,  whose  dog  she  stroked.  She  seemed 
to  be  seeking  points  of  dissimilarity  between  them ;  for, 
in  fact,  Siebenkäs  did  not  appear  to  her  exactly  to  re- 
semble his  friend,  but  to  be  taller,  thinner,  and  younger- 
looking  in  the  face  ;  but  this  was  in  consequence  of  a 

*  The  poetico-philosophical  chapters  of  the  "  Selection,"  which 
was  published  many  years  ago  in  Gera,  and  which  went  off  like 
wildfire,  as  waste-paper. 


I20    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


habit  which  Leibgeber,  whose  shoulders  and  chest  were 
of  a  somewhat  stronger  make,  had  contracted  of  bending 
his  singular  and  more  earnest  countenance  forward  when 
he  spoke,  as  if  he  were  speaking  to  some  one  in  the 
earth.  He  himself  said  that  he  never  had  looked  young, 
not  even  as  an  infant  at  his  baptism,  as  his  godfather 
and  godmother  could  vouch  for  him;  and  he  could 
scarcely  become  young  again  before  his  old  age  and 
second-childhood.  But  if  Leibgeber  stood  erect,  and 
Siebenkäs  stooped  a  little,  then  they  resembled  each 
other  closely  enough.  But  these  hints  are  more  for  those 
who  may  write  their  passports  than  for  any  one  else. 

We  may  congratulate  the  Advocate  of  Kuhschnappel 
on  this  opportunity  of  enjoying  a  few  minutes'  conversa- 
tion with  a  woman  of  rank,  and  of  so  much  cultivation 
of  mind,  —  sufficiently  cultivated,  indeed,  to  appreciate 
satirical  compositions  ;  and  he  himself  desired  nothing 
so  much  as  that  such  a  phcenix,  of  which,  in  life,  he  had 
only  seen  a  few  ashes,  or  a  phoenix-feather  or  two  in 
books,  might 'not  flutter  away  again  immediately,  but 
that  it  might  be  his  lot  to  listen  to  a  long  conversation 
i  between  her  and  Leibgeber,  and  help  to  spin  it  himself, 

when  suddenly  her  Baireuth  friends  came  running  with 
the  intelligence  that  the  waters  were  about  to  play  that 
moment,  and  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  The  whole  X 
party,  therefore,  took  the  path  down  to  the  water-works ; 
and  all  that  Siebenkäs  could  now  do  was  to  seek  to  re- 
main as  near  as  possible  to  the  most  noble  spectatress. 

Arrived  below,  they  stood  on  the  brink  of  the  basin, 
and  looked  at  the  beautiful  play  of  waters,  which  have 
doubtless  long  ago  played  before  the  reader,  either  on  the 
spot,  or  on  the  paper  of  the  various  writers  of  travels, 


CHAPTER  XII.  121 

who  have  sufficiently  expressed  their  admiration  and  as- 
tonishment at  them.  All  the  mythological  demigods  and 
demi-beasts  spouted  out  water ;  and  out  of  the  peopled 
world  of  water-gods  grew  a  crystal  forest,  whose  descend- 
ing branches  again  rooted  in  the  earth,  like  lianas.  They 
diverted  themselves  a  long  time  with  the  gossiping 
mingling  water-world  ;  till,  at  last,  the  flutter  and  growth 
of  the  jets  d'eau  subsided,  and  the  transparent  lily-stalks 
became  every  moment  shorter  to  the  eye. 

"  Whence  is  it,"  said  Natalie  to  Siebenkäs,  "  that  a 
waterfall  raises  the  spirits  and  heart,  but  that  this  visi- 
ble sinking,  this  dying  of  the  water-streams  from  above 
downwards,  gives  me  a  feeling  of  anxiety  every  time  I 
witness  it  ?  In  life,  this  terrible  falling-in  from  the  top 
is  never  made  visible  to  us." 

While  the  Advocate  of  the  Poor  was  reflecting  upon  a 
very  correct  answer  to  this  true  expression  of  sentiment, 
Natalie  suddenly  plunged  into  the  water  to  save  a  child 
who  had  fallen  in  at  the  distance  of  a  few  steps  from  the 
place  where  she  was  standing ;  for  the  water  had  already 
risen  to  more  than  half  a  man's  height.  Before  the  men 
who  stood  near,  and  who  might  have  saved  the  child  more 
easily,  had  thought  about  it,  she  had  already  accomplished 
it :  and  she  was  right ;  for  in  this  case  rapidity  without 
calculation  was  the  good  and  beautiful  action.  She  lifted 
up  the  child,  and  handed  it  to  the  women  ;  but  Siebenkäs 
and  Leibgeber  seized  her  hands,  and  easily  pulled  her  up, 
blushing  in  soul  and  body,  to  the  banks  of  the  basin. 

"  What  does  it  signify  ?  it  won't  hurt  me,"  said  she, 
laughing,  to  the  alarmed  Advocate,  and  then  hurried 
away  with  her  friends,  who  were  struck  dumb  with  as- 
tonishment ;  but  first  she  begged  Leibgeber  to  come, 

VOL.  II.  6 


122 


FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND 


THORN  PIECES. 


without  fail,  on  the  following  evening,  to  Fantaisie,  with 
his  friend. 

"  That  is  a  matter  of  course,"  answered  he  ;  "  but  first 
I  shall  come  early  in  the  morning  alone." 

The  friends  now  mutually  wished  for  one  another's 
society,  and  for  privacy.  Leibgeber,  under  this  fresh 
excitement,  could  scarcely  wait  until  they  reached  the 
birch-wood,  where  he  intended  spinning  to  an  end  their 
previous  conversation  about  Firmian's  domestic  and  con- 
jugal position.  With  regard  to  Natalie,  he  observed  to 
his  astonished  friend,  en  passant,  that  this  was  what  he  so 
much  loved  and  admired  in  her,  namely,  her  decision 
of  character  and  straightforwardness,  both  in  word  and 
deed,  and  her  manly  cheerfulness,  upon  which  the  world, 
and  poverty,  and  accidents,  only  floated,  vanishing  again 
like  fleecy,  shining,  summer  clouds,  without  obscuring 
her  day. 

"As  respects  yourself  and  your  Lenette,"  he  continued, 
when  they  had  reached  the  solitude  of  the  wood,  as  delib- 
erately as  if  he  had  been  speaking  on  the  subject  up  to 
this  moment,  "if  I  were  in  your  place  I  would  take  a 
dissolvent,  and  would  get  rid  of  the  heavy  gall-stone  of 
marriage.  If  you  go  on  scratching  and  scraping  the 
strings  of  wedlock  for  years,  you  will  not  be  able  any 
longer  to  endure  it  for  pain.  The  ecclesiastical  court 
will  make  a  bold  cut  and  rent,  and  you  are  sundered." 

Siebenkäs  was  terror-stricken  at  the  idea  of  a  divorce ; 
not  that  he  did  not  wish  it  as  the  only  possible  opening 
in  the  thunder-clouds  that  surrounded  him  ;  not  that  he 
grudged  it  to  Lenette,  or  the  marriage  with  the  Schulrath 
which  would  result  from  it ;  but  because  he  knew  that, 
notwithstanding  the  similarity  of  her  desires,  Lenette 


CHAPTER  XII. 


I  23 


would  never  consent  to  a  violent  separation,  from  a  feel- 
ing of  shame  and  regard  to  appearances.  On  their  way 
to  a  divorce,  too,  they  would  have  to  pass  through  cruel 
cutting  hours,  full  of  heart-anguish  and  nervous  fever ; 
besides,  they  could  scarcely  defray  the  expenses  of  a  mar- 
riage, not  to  speak  of  a  divorce.  Another  consideration, 
also,  that  pained  him  too  deeply  was  the  thought  that  he 
should  see  the  poor  'innocent  creature,  who  had  trembled 
near  him  in  so  many  cold  storms  of  life,  pass  away  forever 
out  of  his  arms  and  his  room,  —  and,  moreover,  with  the 
handkerchief  in  her  hand. 

All  these  considerations  he  urged,  more  or  less  warmly, 
to  his  friend,  and  concluded  with  this  last :  "  I  confess  to 
you,  too,  that  if  she  were  to  go  away  from  me  with  all  her 
goods  and  chattels,  and  leave  me  alone  in  the  empty  room, 
as  in  a  sepulchre,  and  near  all  the  cleared  blank  places 
where  we  formerly  sat  many  a  glad  and  cheerful  hour 
together,  and  saw  flowers  blossom  around  us,  she  could 
never  pass  by  my  window,  especially  if  she  bore  my  name, 
without  a  voice  within  me  exclaiming,  '  Throw  thyself 

down,  and  fall  shivered  at  her  feet/  Would  it 

not  be  ten  times  wiser,"  continued  he,  changing  his  tone, 
and  endeavoring  to  speak  more  gayly,  "  for  us  to  wait  until 
I  were  to  fall  down  in  a  similar  manner  in  the  room,  (or 
of  what  use  is  my  vertigo?)  and  thus  tumble  out  the 
window  and  the  world  together,  in  a  more  agreeable  man- 
ner ?  Friend  Hain  *  will  take  his  long  erasing-knife,  and 
scratch  my  name,  with  other  blots,  out  her  marriage-cer- 
tilicate  and  wedding-ring." 

Contrary  to  all  expectation,  this  only  seemed  to  make 
his  friend  more  lively  and  merry.    "  Do  so,"  said  he, 

*  Death.  — Tr. 


124    FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

"and  die !  The  cost  of  the  funeral  cannot  possibly 
amount  to  as  much  as  the  costs  of  the  other  separation ; 
and,  besides,  you  are  a  subscriber  to  the  Burial  Insurance 
Company."  Siebenkäs  looked  at  him  with  astonishment. 
Leibgeber,  however,  continued,  in  the  most  indifferent 
tone :  "  But  I  must  tell  you  that  little  good  will  come  of 
it  for  us  two,  if  you  intend  to  be  a  long  time  saddling  and 
dawdling,  and  don't  die  before  a  year  or  two.  For  my 
own  part,  I  should  consider  it  much  more  to  the  purpose, 
if  you  were  to  go  at  once  from  Baireuth  to  Kuhsclmappel, 
and,  immediately  on  your  arrival,  were  to  lay  yourself  on 
your  bed  of  illness  and  death-bed,  and  die.  But  I  will 
give  you  my  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  your  Lenette's 
half-year  of  mourning  will  be  concluded  just  before  ad- 
vent, and  she  would  not  then  need  a  dispensation  for  the 
advent,  but  only  a  dispensation  for  the  period  of  mourn- 
ing, supposing  she  married  Pelzstiefel  before  Christmas. 
It  wTould  also  suit  me  better.  I  should  then  disappear 
among  the  world's  crowd,  and  not  see  you  again  for  a 
very  long  time.  Nor  caj^  it  be  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  yourself  to  die  soon  ;  for  the  sooner  you  are  appointed 
to  the  office  of  inspector,'  the  more  it  will  be  to  your 
advantage." 

"This  is  the  first  time,  dear  Henry,"  answered  Fir- 
mian,  "that  I  have  not  understood  one  word  of  your  jest." 

Leibgeber,  with  a  disquieted  countenance,  in  which 
was  written  a  whole  future  universal  history,  and  which 
both  betrayed  and  occasioned  the  greatest  expectation, 
drew  a  paper  out  of  his  pocket,  and  handed  it  in  silence 
to  his  friend.  It  was  a  letter  from  the  Count  of  Vaduz, 
appointing  Leibgeber  to  the  inspectorship  of  the  upper 
bailiwick  of  Vaduz.    He  then  gave  him  an  open  letter 


CHAPTER  XII.  125 


written  by  the  Count's  own  hand.  While  Firmian  was 
reading  it,  he  took  out  his  pöcket  almanac,  and  muttered 
coldly  to  himself,  "  From  quarter-day,  —  (louder)  does 
not  the  letter  say  so  ?  from  the  quarter-day  after  Whit- 
suntide I  am  to  enter  on  my  office  ;  that  is,  from  to-day, 
being  Stanislaus-day.  Ah,  listen  !  Stanislaus-day  !  One, 
two,  three,  four,  —  four  and  a  half  weeks  ! " 

When  Firmian  joyfully  gave  it  back  to  him,  he  pushed 
it  away  and  said,  "  Write  to  the  Count  to-day,  rather 
than  defer  it  until  to-morrow." 

Thereupon  Henry  knelt  down  in  solemn,  passionate, 
humorous  enthusiasm,  that  was  increased  by  the  wine  he 
had  drunk,  in  the  middle  of  a  long  narrow  glade,  which, 
running  between  the  lofty  trees  of  the  thickest  part  of 
the  shrubbery,  seemed  like  a  subterranean  passage,  and 
which,  in  the  far  perspective  in  the  east,  was  bounded  by 
the  weathercock  on  the  steeple  of  a  church  situated  in  a 
hollow,  as  by  a  turnstile.  He  knelt  down  towards  the 
west,  and  gazed  fixedly  through  the  long  green  hollow 
way  upon  the  evening  sun,  which  was  sinking  to  the 
earth,  like  a  bright  falling-star ;  and  the  broad  light 
streamed  from  .  heaven  into  the  long  green  path,  like 
gilded  forest-water  of  the  spring-time.  He  looked  fixedly 
at  it,  and,  blinded  and  surrounded  by  the  halo,  com- 
menced thus :  "  Should  there  be  a  good  spirit  now  hover- 
ing round  me,  or  my  genius  or  his  near  me,  or  should 
thy  soul  be  yet  living  above  thy  ashes,  thou  old,  deeply- 
buried,  good  father,  O  then  approach  nearer,  old  dark 
spirit,  and  grant  thy  foolish  son,  who  is  still  limping 
about  in  the  fluttering  dress  of  a  body,  the  first  and  last 
favor,  by  this  day  entering  into  Firmian's  heart,  and, 
while  thou  art  shaking  it  well,  holding  in  it  the  following 
speech  :  — 


126    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

"  Die,  Firmian,  for  my  son's  sake,  though  only  in  ap- 
pearance and  in  jest ;  put  away  your  name,  and  take  his, 
which  was  formerly  your  own  ;  go  to  Vaduz  as  inspector, 
and  pass  yourself  off  for  him.  My  poor  son,  like  the 
round  jou-jou  de  Normandie  upon  which  he  is  sitting,  and 
which  whirls  round  the  sun  on  strings  of  sunbeams,  would 
also  like  to  spin  round  a  little  more  on  the  jou-jou  him- 
self. The  ring  of  eternity  is  yet  hanging  before  the  rest 
of  you  parrots,  and  you  hop  upon  it,  and  can  rock  your- 
selves to  and  fro  in  it,  but  he  sees  no  ring ;  O,  give  the 
poor  parrot  the  joy  of  hopping  about  the  bird-cage  perch 
of  earth,  until,  having  wound  the  thread  of  his  life  sixty 
times,  to  a  skein,  the  reel  rings  and  snaps,  and  the  thread 
is  broken,  and  his  fun  is  over !  O  good  spirit  of  my 
father,  move  the  heart  of  my  friend  this  day,  and  guide 
his  tongue,  that  it  may  not  say  'No,'  when  1  ask  him, 
'  Wilt  thou  ? ' "  Blinded  by  the  evening  radiance,  he 
sought  to  find  Firmian's  hand,  and  said,  "  Where  is  thy 
hand,  dear  friend  ?  and  say  not  '  No  ! ' " 

But  Firmian,  carried  away  by  his  feelings,  knelt  down, 
—  for,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  his  long-restrained  earnest- 
ness, Leibgeber  attracted  the  heart  irresistibly,  —  and 
without  a  word,  and  tearful,  like  an  evening  shadow,  he 
knelt  before  the  heart  of  his  friend,  and  falling  upon  his 
bosom,  and  pressing  it  closely  and  firmly  on  his  own,  he 
said  to  him,  in  a  low  tone,  from  inability  to  speak  aloud, 
"  I  will  die  for  you  in  a  thousand  ways  —  as  you  please  ; 
do  but  name  them.  But  speak  clearly  what  you  wish  ; 
I  swear  beforehand  to  grant  you  everything.  By  the  soul 
of  your  dead  father,  I  will  willingly  give  you  my  life  ; 
and,  as  it  is,  I  have  nothing -more  to  give." 

Henry  answered  in  an  unusually  subdued  tone  of 


CHAPTER  XII. 


127 


voice,  "  We  will  now  go  up  and  mingle  with  the  throng 
and  the  people  of  Baireuth.  Surely  I  must  have  a 
dropsy  on  the  chest  to-day,  or  a  hot  mineral-spring,  and 
my  waistcoat  is  the  enclosure  round  the  fountain :  a 
heart  ought  to  have  on  a  swimming-girdle  in  such  a 
vapor-bath." 

Up  there,  at  the  covered  table  beneath  the  trees,  near 
the  guests  assembled  for  the  spring  wake,  among  the  joy- 
ous, the  conquest  of  emotion  was  not  so  difficult ;  there 
Henry  hastily  unrolled  the  long  plan  of  his  castles  in  the 
air,  and  the  building-grant  of  his  Babylonian  tower. 
He  had  given  his  sacred  word  of  honor  to  the  Count 
of  Vaduz,  whose  ears  and  heart  expanded  and  opened 
hungrily  to  him,  to  return  as  his  inspector  ;  but  his  object 
was  to  let  himself  be  represented,  by  his  dear  coadjutor 
and  substitute,  cum  spe  succedenti,  Firmian,  who  in  humor 
and  person  was  such  a  tautology  of  himself,  that  the 
Count  would  have  examined  and  measured  both  in  vain 
in  order  to  select  one  of  them.  In  bad  years  the  situa- 
tion yielded  an  annual  income  of  twelve  hundred  dollars ; 
therefore  as  much  as  the  whole  amount  of  Firmian's  in- 
heritance, which  was  sealed  up  by  a  lawsuit.  By  resum- 
ing his  old  name  of  Leibgeber,  Siebenkäs  would  thus 
regain  what  he  had  lost  by  abandoning  it.  "  For,"  con- 
tinued Henry,  "  since  I  have  read  your  devilish  selection, 
I  can't  bear  it,  get  over  it,  or  swallow  it  down  any  longer, 
in  any  conceivable  way,  that  you  should  continue  to  sit  as 
unicorn,  and  solitary,  and  hermit,  and  unknowtl,  in  that  • 
cursed  worn-out  hole  Kuhschnappel.  And  can  you  take 
as  much  time  for  consideration  as  the  chancellor  takes  to 
shake  out  his  pipe,  when  I  tell  you  that  I  can't  fill  any 
office  in  the  world  but  that  of  a  grazioso,  while  you  can 


128    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


fill  every  one  gloriously  ;  and  that  I  can  accept  no  situa- 
tion in  a  college  but  that  of  a  jester,  because,  though  I 
possess  more  knowledge  than  any  of  the  professors,  I  can 
only  use  it  for  satire,  and  because  my  language  is  a  patch- 
work lingua  franca,  my  head  a  Proteus,  and  I  myself 
am  a  beautiful  compilation  of  the  Devil  and  his  grand- 
mother ?  And  even  if  I  could,  I  would  not.  What !  in 
my  blooming  youth  I  am  to  neigh  and  paw  like  a  beast 
of  office,  —  like  a  state-prisoner  in  the  dungeon  and  trave 
of  a  counting-house,  —  without  enjoying  any  more  beauti- 
ful prospect  than  the  saddle  and  harness  suspended  in  my 
stable  and  stall,  while  out  of  doors  the  most  beautiful 
Parnassus  mountains  and  Tempe  valleys  lie  spread  out 
in  vain  before  the  horse  of  the  Muses  ?  Now,  in  the 
years  wThen  the  milk  of  my  life  is  about  to  throw  up 
some  cream,  —  for,  as  it  is,  the  years  will  come  soon 
enough  when  a  man  grows  sour,  and  changes  into  whey 
and  curds,  —  shall  I  throw  the  rennet  of  an  appoint- 
ment into  my  morning's  milk  ?  But  you  must  wmistle 
in-  another  key ;  for  you  are  already  half  a  placeman,  and 
a  wrhole  married  man.  Ah !  it  will  surpass  all  the  Bre- 
men contributions  to  the  pleasures  of  the  understanding 
and  of  wit,  all  comic  romances  and  comic  operas,  when 
I  go  with  you  to  Kuhschnappel,  and  you  there  become 
extinguished,  first  making  your  will ;  and  after  I  have 
paid  you  the  last  honors,  once  more  speedily  arise,  and 
advance  to  still  greater  honors,  —  not  so  much  by  be- 
coming one  of  the  blessed,  as  by  becoming^an  inspector, 
—  not  so  much  by  appearing  after  your  death  before  a 
strict  tribunal,  as  by  sitting  upon  one  yourself.  Fun 
upon  fun !  I  can't  yet  quite  discern  all  the  conse- 
quences.    The  insurance-company  must  pay  your  af- 


CHAPTER  XII. 


flicted  widow  (you  can  repay  the  establishment  as  soon 
as  you  are  in  cash).  Death  will  cut  off  your  ring- 
finger,  swollen  with  the  wedding-ring.  Your  widow  can 
marry  again  —  yourself,  if  she  pleases  ;  and  you  too." 

All  at  once  Leibgeber  struck  his  thigh  forty  times, 
and  exclaimed,  "  Ay,  ay,  ay,  ay,  ay  !  ...  I  can  hardly 
wait  until  you  die.  Listen !  your  death  can  produce 
two  widows.  I  will  persuade  Natalie  to  insure  herself  a 
yearly  pension  of  two  hundred  dollars  upon  your  death 
from  the  General  Prussian  Widow's  Provident  Fund 
Society ;  you  can  pay  it  back  again  as  soon  as  you  have 
the  means.  You  must  secretly  give  a  bread  and  fruit 
basket  to  your  future  widow,  when  she  gives  a  basket* 
to  the  Venner.  Supposing  you  could  not  pay,  and  were 
really  to  die,  I  should  be  still  living,  and  no  treasury 
should  be  the  loser  the  moment  I  had  money  again  " ; 
for  Leibgeber  lived  in  a  secret  intermitting  fever,  which 
he  himself  has  never  explained,  between  getting  poor 
and  rich,  or,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  between  inhal- 
ing and  exhaling  the  life-breath  {aura  Vitalis)  of  money. 
Any  one  else  except  Leibgeber,  who  played  so  boldly 
with  life,  —  whose  burning  fire  for  right,  sincerity,  and 
disinterested  justice  had  beamed  upon  his  friend  for 
years,  as  from  Pharaoh's  heights,  —  would  have  startled 
our  Siebenkäs,  especially  in  his  character  of  Advocate,  — 
perhaps  even  have  angered,  instead  of  overpowering  him. 
But  Leibgeber  thoroughly  imbued  him ;  indeed,  burnt 
him  through  and  through  with  his  ethereal  spirit  of  hu- 
mor, and  hurried  him  on,  without  being  able  to  stop,  to 
a  mimic  deception,  which  had  no  selfish  aims  of  lying  or 

deceit. 


*  "  To  give  a  basket  "  means  to  refuse  an  offer  of  marriage.  —  Tk. 

VOL.  II.  6*  I 


130    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


But  Firmian  at  least,  in  the  intoxication  of  his  spirit, 
still  maintained  enough  power  over  himself  to  think  of 
the  danger  to  which  he  might  expose  his  friend.  "  But 
suppose  any  one,"  said  he,  "  should  ever  meet  my  true 
Henry  Leibgeber,  whose  name  I  steal,  alongside  of  me, 
a  coiner  of  false  names,  —  what  will  happen  then  ?  " 

"  No  one  will  find  me,"  said  Henry.  "  For,  look 
you !  as  soon  as  you  have  resumed  your  old,  canonical, 
genuine  name  of  Leibgeber,  and  given  up  my  Firmian 
Stanislaus,  which  was  created  over  a  stormy  baptismal 
font,  —  and  God  grant  that  you  do  so  !  —  I  shall  then 
fling  myself  under  quite  unheard-of  names  (it  may  be 
that,  in  order  to  celebrate  three  hundred  and  sixty-five 
birthdays,  I  shall  borrow  in  turn  the  name  of  each  day 
in  the  calendar),  —  I  shall  fling  myself,  I  say,  off  the 
continent  into  the  ocean ;  and  shall  drive  myself  about 
with  my  back-fins,  belly-fins,  and  other  fins,  through 
the  floods  and  bays  of  life,  to  the  muddy  sea  of  death ; 
and  then  it  will  probably  be  long  before  I  see  you 

again."  He  gazed  fixedly  on  the  setting  sun 

sinking  behind  Baireuth ;  his  motionless  eyes  beamed 
with  a  moister  glow,  as  he  continued,  more  slowly  : 
"  Firmian,  this  day,  in  the  almanac,  is  Stanislaus-day, 
and  your  name-day  and  mine,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
the  death-day  of  this  wandering  name,  for  you  must 
abandon  it  after  your  mock  death.  I,  poor  devil,  for  the 
first  time  for  many  a  year  past,  will  be  serious  to-day. 
Go  you  home  alone  through  the  village  of  Johannes  :  I 
will  go  by  the  avenue,  and  we  will  meet  again  in  the 
hotel.  By  heaven  !  here  everything  is  so  beautiful  and 
rosy,  as  if  the  '  Ermitage  '  were  a  piece  of  the  sun  ;  but 
don't  be  long  !  " 


CHAPTER  XII. 


131 


But  a  bitter  pain  came  over  Henry's  face,  scoring  it 
with  furrows  ;  and  he  turned  aside  the  bas-relief  imagery 
of  sorrow,  and  his  blinded  eyes,  full  of  radiance  and 
water,  and  hastened  away  past  the  spectators,  with  a 
countenance  that  wore  the  expression  of  having  the 
attention  fixed  upon  something  else,  and  disappeared 
among  the  shrubbery  paths. 

Firmian  stood  alone,  with  moist  eyes,  before  the 
mild  sun,  which  melted  into  colors  over  the  green 
world.  The  deep  gold-mine  of  an  evening  cloud,  near 
the  sun's  fire,  dripped  down  from  the  ether  upon  the 
neighboring  hills,  and  the  streaming  evening-gold  hung 
transparently  on  the  yellow-green  buds,  and  on  the  pale- 
red  mountain-tops,  and  an  immeasurable  smoke,  as  if 
from  an  altar,  cast,  shifting,  a  strange  reflection  of  en- 
chantment and  liquid  transparent  distant  colors  on  the 
mountains ;  and  the  mountains  and  the  happy  earth, 
reflecting  the  sun,  seemed  to  receive  the  declining  orb 

in  their  embraces  but  when  the  sun  sunk  beneath 

the  earth,  then  suddenly  the  angel  of  a  higher  life  flew 
into  the  beaming  world,  which,  to  the  tearful  eyes  of 
Firmian,  hung  suspended  like  an  expanded,  flickering, 
fiery  meteor,  and  the  angel  stepped  forth,  flashing  like 
the  day,  in  the  midst  of  the  night  torch-dance  of  the 
moving  living  creatures,  and  they  all  grew  pale  and 
stood  still.  When  he  dried  his  eyes,  the  earth  was 
stiller  and  paler,  and  night  came  dewy  and  wintry  out 
of  the  woods. 

But  the  melted  human  heart  now  pined  for  its  rel- 
atives, and  for  all  whom  it  loved  and  knew,  and  it 
throbbed  insatiate  in  this  solitary  prison  of  life,  and 
wished  to  love  all  mankind.     O,  on  such  an  evening 


132     FLOWER,  FKUIT,  AND   THOEN  PIECES. 

the  soul  is  too  unfortunate  which  has  resigned  much  or 
lost  much ! 

In  a  sweet  trance,  Firmian  went  through  the  hanging 
gardens  of  the  flowery  fragrance,  —  through  the  midst 
of  the  American  flowers  which  open  beneath  our  night- 
heaven,  —  through  the  sleeping  apartment  of  closed  fields 
and  amid  dripping  blossoms  ;  and  the  half-moon  stood 
upon  the  ramparts  of  the  heavenly  temple,  in  the  midday 
radiance  which  the  sun  cast  up  to  her  from  the  deep  over 
the  earth  and  its  evening  red. 

As  Firmian  passed  through  the  embowered  village 
of  Johannes,  whose  dwellings  were  scattered  amidst 
orchards,  the  evening  bells  from  distant  villages  rocked 
the  slumbering  Spring  to  sleep  with  their  cradle-songs, 
and  iEolian  harps,  breathed  on  by  the  breeze,  seemed  to 
send  forth  their  tones  from  the  evening  red,  and  their 
melodies  flowed  gently  into  the  wide  region  of  sleep, 
and  there  became  dreams.  His  overflowing  heart  pined 
for  love  ;  and  he  was  obliged,  from  very  longing,  to  press 
his  flowers  hastily  into  the  white  hands  of  a  beautiful 
child  in  Johannes,  who  was  playing  with  water-rushes, 
merely  for  the  sake  of  touching  human  hands. 

Good  Firmian  !  go  with  your  softened  soul  to  your 
softened  friend.  His  inner  man  also  stretches  forth  its 
arms  towards  an  image,  and  you  are  nowhere  so  happy 
to-day  as  with  one  another.  When  Firmian  entered  into 
their  common  chamber  it  was  only  illumined  by  the  red 
twilight.  His  Henry  turned,  and  they  fell  silently  into 
each  other's  arms,  and  with  bowed  heads  poured  forth  all 
the  tears  that  burned  within  them ;  but  some  were  tears 
of  joy,  and  they  concluded  the  embrace,  but  not  the 
silence.    Henry  threw  himself,  in  his  clothes,  on  the 


CHAPTEK  XII. 


133 


bed  and  covered  himself  up.  Firmian  sunk  upon  the 
second  near  it,  and  drops  of  happiness  fell  from  his  closed 
eyes.  After  some  intoxicating  hours,  heated  by  fancies, 
dreams,  and  sorrows,  a  soft  light  fell  upon  his  burning 
eyelids  ;  he  opened  them  ;  the  pale  glowing  moon  hung 
near  the  window,  and  he  arose  But  when  he  be- 
held his  friend,  silent  and  pale,  like  a  shadow  of  the  moon 
on  the  wall,  leaning  against  the  window,  and  suddenly 
Rust's  melody,  like  the  voice  of  a  nightingale,  arose  from 
a  neighboring  garden, 

"  Not  for  this  terrestrial  land 
Friendship  ties  her  holy  band," 

he  sank  back  again  under  the  pressure  of  a  bitter  re- 
membrance, and  of  too  great  an  emotion,  and  a  spasm 
closed  his  sorrowful  eyes,  and  he  said,  in  a  hollow  voice, 
"  Henry,  believe  in  immortality :  how  can  we  love  if 
we  decay  ! " 

"  Peace,  peace  !  "  said  Henry  ;  "  to-day  I  celebrate 
my  name-day,  and  that  is  enough  ;  for  man  has  no  birth- 
day, and  consequently  no  death-day." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


The  Human  Clock.  —  The  Kefusal.  —  The  Venner. 

HEN,  in  a  former  chapter,  I  spoke  of  short 
sleepers,  who  awake  six  hours  earlier  than 
their  antipodes,  I  think  I  did  well  not  to  in- 
sert the  model  of  a  clock,  long  ago  invented 
by  me,  among  the  thickly  crowded  events  of  the  twelfth 
chapter,  but  to  keep  it  for  the  thirteenth.  Into  this  I 
now  insert  it  and  put  it  up.  I  believe  the  flower-clock 
of  Linnseus  in  Upsal  {horologium  flora),  whose  wheels 
are  the  sun  and  earth,  and  whose  index-figures  are 
flowers,  of  which  one  always  awakens  and  opens  later 
than  another,  was  what  secretly  suggested  my  conception 
of  the  human  clock.  I  formerly  occupied  two  chambers 
in  Scheerau,  in  the  middle  of  the  market-place  ;  from 
the  front  room  I  overlooked  the  whole  market-place  and 
the  royal  buildings,  from  the  back  one  the  botanical 
garden.  Whoever  now  dwells  in  these  two  rooms 
possesses  a  capital  harmony,  arranged  to  his  hand,  be- 
tween the  flower-clock  in  the  garden  and  the  human 
clock  in  the  market-place. 

At  three  o'clock  the  yellow  meadow  goat's-beard  opens, 
and  brides  awake,  and  the  stable-boy  begins  to  rattle 
and  feed  the  horses  beneath  the  lodger   At 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


'35  1 


four  o'clock  (if  it  is  Sunday)  the  little  hawk's-weed 
awakes,  also  holy  communicants,  who  are  clocks  with 
chimes,  and  the  bakers.  At  five,  kitchen-maids,  dairy- 
maids, and  buttercups  awake  ;  at  six,  the  sow-thistle  and 
cooks.  At  seven  o'clock  many  of  the  ladies'-maids  are 
awake  in  the  palace,  the  salad  in  my  botanical  garden, 
and  some  tradeswomen.  At  eight  o'clock  all  their 
daughters  awake,  the  little  yellow  mouse-ear,  all  the 
colleges,  the  leaves  of  flowers,  of  pie-crust,  and  of  deeds. 
At  nine  o'clock  the  female  nobility  already  begins  to  stir, 
the  marigold,  and  even  many  young  ladies,  who  have 
come  from  the  country  on  a  visit,  begin  to  look  out  of 
their  windows.  Between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  the 
court-ladies,  and  the  whole  staff  of  lords  of  the  bedcham- 
ber, the  green  colewort,  and  the  Alpine  dandelion,  and 
the  reader  of  the  Princess,  rouse  themselves  out  of  their 
morning  sleep  ;  and  the  whole  palace,  considering  that 
the  morning  sun  gleams  so  brightly  to-day  from  the  lofty 
sky:  through  the  colored  silk  curtains,  curtails  a  little  of 
its  slumber.  At  twelve  o'clock  the  Prince,  at  one  his 
wife  and  the  carnation,  have  their  eyes  open  in  their 
flower-vase.  What  awakes  late  in  the  afternoon,  at  four 
o'clock,  is  only  the  red  hawk's-weed  and  the  night-watch- 
man, as  cuckoo-clock,  and  these  two  only  tell  the  time, 
as  evening-clocks  and  moon-clocks.  From  the  hot  eyes 
of  the  poor  devil  who,  like  the  jalap-plant,  first  opens  them 
at  five  o'clock,  we  will  turn  our  own,  in  pity,  aside.  It 
is  a  sick  man  who  has  taken  the  jalap,  and  who  only 
exchanges  the  fever-fancies  of  being  griped  with  hot 
pincers  for  waking  gripes. 

I  could  never  know  when  it  was  two  o'clock,  because 
at  that  time,  together  with  a  thousand  other  stout  gentle- 


136    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

men,  and  with  the  little  yellow  mouse-ear,  I  always  fell 
asleep  ;  but  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  at  three 
in  the  morning,  I  awoke  as  regularly  as  though  I  were 
a  repeater. 

Thus  we  mortals  may  be  a  flower-clock  for  higher 
beings  when  our  flower-leaves  close  upon  our  last  bed ; 
or  sand-clocks,  when  the  sand  of  our  life  is  so  run  down 
that  it  is  reversed  in  the  other  world  ;  or  picture-clocks, 
because,  when  our  death-bell  here  below  strikes  and 
rings,  our  image  steps  forth  from  its  case  into  the  next 
world.  On  each .  event  of  the  kind,  when  seventy  years 
of  human  life  have  passed  away,  they  may  perhaps  say, 
"  What !  another  hour  already  gone  ?  Good  God  !  how 
the  time  flies  !  " 

I  als©  am  made  aware  of  that  by  this  digression. 
Firmian  and  Henry  arose  cheerfully  in  the  morning  ;  but 
the  former  could  not  stay  quiet  a  moment  all  the  day 
long,  either  in  a  chair,  or  in  the  room.  The  opera  buffa 
and  seria  of  his  mock  death  continually  drew  up  its 
curtain  before  his  soul,  and  revealed  its  burlesque  scenes. 
As  was  ever  the  case,  he  was  made  more  than  usually 
humorous  by  his  friend's  presence  and  example,  who 
ruled  over  him  by  his  inward  similarity.  Leibgeber, 
who  had  already  exhausted  and  wandered  through  all 
the  scenes  and  stage-shiftings  of  this  mock  death  in  his 
fancy  many  weeks  ago,  now  thought  little  about  it.  The 
new  thing  which  occupied  him  was  the  determination 
to  pull  the  wick,  that  is  to  say,  the  bride,  out  of  Rosa's 
bridal  torch,  which  was  already  moulded  and  painted. 
Henry  was  always  violent,  free,  bold,  indignant,  and  im- 
placable against  injustice  ;  and  this  moral  indignation, 
as  in  the  affair  of  Rosa  and  of  Blaise,  sometimes  wore 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


137 


too  much  the  appearance  of  revenge.  Firmian  was 
milder,  more  indulgent,,  and  forgiving  ;  often,  indeed,  ap- 
parently at  the  cost  of  his  honor.  It  would  have  been 
impossible  for  him  to  have  drawn  the  letter-writing  lover 
out  of  the  bleeÄig  soul  of  the  beautiful  Natalie  with 
Henry's  surgical  instrument. 

On  going  to  her  to-day  in  "  Fantaisie,"  his  friend  was 
obliged  to  promise  that  he  would  be  most  tender  in  his 
behavior,  and  for  the  moment  be  silent  on  the  subject 
of  the  Royal  Prussian  Widow's  Provident  Fund.  It 
would  certainly  have  wounded  Natalie's  feelings  of 
honor  very  deeply,  if  in  her  moral  separation  from  the 
immoral  Venner,  the  slightest  hint  had  been  given  of  a 
metallic  compensation  for  a  spiritual  loss  ;  she  deserved 
to  conquer,  and  was  able  to  do  so,  even  with  the  prospect 
of  impoverishment  before  her. 

Henry  returned  late,  with  an  expression  of  counte- 
nance somewhat  disturbed,  but  nevertheless  gratified. 
Rosa  was  cast  off,  and  Natalie  wounded.  The  English 
lady  was  at  Anspach,  with  Lady  Craven,  and  helped  to 
eat  the  butter,  which  the  latter  made,  as  well  as  books. 
When  he  had  read  off  to  the  Roman  lady,  as  the  Eng- 
lish women  generally  called  Natalie,  the  whole  black- 
board and  sin-register  of  the  Venner,  seriously  indeed, 
but  rather  loudly  and  without  much  softening  the  truth, 
she  rose  up  with  that  grace  which  is  the  characteristic 
of  self-sacrificing  enthusiasm,  and  said :  "  If  you  have 
been  deceived  in  this  as  little  as  you  yourself  are  capable 
of  deceiving,  and  if  I  may  place  as  much  confidence  in 
your  friend  as  in  yourself,  I  give  you  my  sacred  word 
that  nothing  shall  persuade  or  force  me ;  but  in  a  few 
days  he  will  be  here  in  person,  and  I  owe  it  to  him  as 


138    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

well  as  to  my  own  honor,  to  hear  him,  since  I  have  given 
my  letters  into  his  hands ;  but  how  hard  it  is  that  I  must 
speak  so  coldly  !  " 

Each  moment  the  red  rose  on  her  glowing  face 
changed  more  perceptibly  into  a  white^ose.  She  sup- 
ported her  head  on  her  hand ;  and  as  her  eyes  filled,  and 
at  last  overflowed,  she  said :  "  Don't  mind  me  ;  I  shall 
keep  my  word ;  then,  cost  what  it  will,  I  shall  tear  my- 
self* away  from  my  friend,  and  return  to  my  poor  rela- 
tions in  Schraplau.  As  it  is,  I  have  lived  in  the  great 
world  long  enough,  but  not  too  long." 

Henry's  unusual  seriousness  had  overpowered  her ; 
she  had  unshaken  confidence  in  his  integrity,  for  a 
strange  reason,  which  was,  that  he  had  not  yet  fallen 
in  love,  but  had  only  formed  a  friendship  with  her,  and 
consequently  did  not  restrict  the  measure  of  her  affection 
by  his  own.  She  would  perhaps  have  been  angry  with 
the  married  fiscal  of  her  bridegroom,  Firmian,  had  he 
not  possessed  three  or  four  of  the  best  excuses ;  first, 
his  mental  resemblance  to  Leibgeber  in  general ;  then, 
his  physiognomy,  which  now,  in  its  paleness,  seemed 
quite  transfigured  ;  further,  his  touching  evening-journal ; 
and,  lastly,  his  whole  gentle,  affectionate  nature.  In 
spite  of  the  pain  she  had  at  heart,  she  now  repeated,  to 
Leibgeber's  great  joy,  the  request  she  had  made  yester- 
day, that  he  would  bring  his  friend  in  the  evening. 
Let  no  one,  however,  be  offended  with  her  on  account 
of  her  half-mourning  for  the  setting  Venner,  nor  with 
her  erroneous  impression  of  him ;  since  we  all  know 
that  the  dear  girls  so  often  confound  sensibility  with 
integrity,  letters  with  deeds,  and  ink-tears  with  an  honest 
warm  blood. 


CHAPTEK  XIII. 


139 


In  the  afternoon*  Leibgeber  conducted  the  Advocate 
to  her.  Aquiliana  received  him  at  first  with  a  passing 
Mush,  and  then  with  a  slight  expression  of  pride,  from 
a  lei-ling  of  shame,  but  jet  with  the  kindness  which  she 
o\v<  d  to  his  interest  in  her  future  welfare.  She  resided 
in  the  apartment  of  the  English  lfcdy,  and  the  blooming 
pleasure  valley  lay  spread  out  before  it,  like  a  world 
before  a  sun.  Such  a  full  pleasure-garden  possesses 
this  advantage,  that  a  stranger  advocate  is  better  able  to 
festen  the  spider-threads  of  his  discourse  to  its  branches, 
until  the  thread  has  become  spun  into  a  beaming  web 
of  art,  and  .hangs  suspended  in  the  free  air?  Firmian 
could  never  attain  the  perfection  of  those  people  of  the 
world,  who,  in  order  to  commence  spinning  a  conver- 
sation, require  nothing  but  a  listener  ;  who,  like  the  leaf- 
frogs,  know  how  to  attach  themselves  to  the  smoothest 
surfaces,  upon  which  they  hop  ;  who  are  even  able,  in- 
deed, to  do  what  the  leaf-frogs  cannot  do,  maintain  them- 
selves in  a  vacuum,  as  well  of  air  as  of  objects.  But  a 
man  of  independent  mind,  like  Siebenkäs,  could  not  long 
remain  embarrassed  by  his  ignorance  of  habits  and  cus- 
toms, not  even  at  court,  but  must  soon  recover  his  free- 
dom by  his  innate  superiority  to  external  circumstances, 
and  by  unassuming  simplicity  readily  supply  the  place  of 
the  artificial  and  assuming  manners  of  the  world. 

He  had  yesterday  seen  this  same  Natalie  in  the 
cheerful  enjoyment  of  her  powers,  both  of  nature  and 
of  friendship,  smiling  and  captivating  every  heart,  and 
he  had  seen  her  crown  the  beautiful  evening  with  the 
boldness  of  sacrifice ;  but  to-day  there  was  so  little  left 
of  the  tender,  bright  joys !  A  beautiful  face  is  never 
.more  beautiful  than  in  the  hour  that  follows  the  bitter 


140    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


moment  when  tears,  drawn  forth  by*the  loss  of  a  heart, 
have  passed  over  it ;  for  in  the  hour  of  bitterness  itself, 
the  grieving  beauty  would  probably  excite  our  sorrow 
and  sympathy  too  much. 

If  it  would  have  been  of  any  service  to  her,  Firmian 
would  joyfully  have  Äed  in  a  more  serious  way  than  he 
projected  for  this  lovely  creature,  who  kept  the  knife  of 
sacrifice  in  her  heart,  and  allowed  it  to  smart  there,  that 
its  bleeding  might  be  delayed.  Is  it  strange,  then,  that 
the  sympathy  between  the  two  should  grow  deeper  every 
moment  with  the  falling  sand  in  the  hour-glass,  when  we 
reflect  that  while  the  trio  were  under  the  influence  of  an 
unusual  degree  of  earnestness  (for  even  Leibgeber  was 
overtaken  by"  it),  every  bosom  filled  itself  with  gentle 
wishes,  moved  by  the  gala  beauty  of  spring,  —  that  this 
day  Firmian  with  his  pale,  sick  form,  marked  by  old  sor- 
rows, shone  pleasantly  like  evening  sunshine  upon  an  eye 
weakened  by  tears ;  that  he  was  also  recommended  to  her 
favor  by  the  (singular)  merit  of  having  imbittered  some 
of  the  infidelities  at  least  of  her  faithless  lover,  and  pre- 
vented others ;  that  every  note  he  touched  was  in  the 
minor  key  of  a  soft  heart,  because  he  sought  to  cast  into 
shade  and  atone  in  some  degree  for  his  agency  in  laying 
waste  all  at  once  so  many  hopes  and  joys  of  this  innocent 
and  unknown  lady  ;  and  that  even  his  greater  share  of 
respectful,  modest  reserve  helped  to  adorn  him  by  con- 
trasting with  the  familiarity  of  his  image,  Henry? 

All  these  charms"  of  circumstance,  which  win  the  female 
world  more  than  those  of  the  person,  the  Advocate  pos- 
sessed in  Natalie's  eyes.  In  his,  she  had  yet  greater,  and 
they  were  all  new  ones  ;  such  as,  her  acquirements  (in 
art  and  science),  her  masculine  enthusiasm,  her  more  re-. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


fined  manner,  and  her  flattering  behavior  to  himself,  with 
which  as  yet  none  of  the  fair  sex  had  honored  him,  —  a 
charm  which  plunges  many  a  man  unaccustomed  to  female 
society,  not  only  into  rapture,  but  into  marriage  ;  and  the 
two  last  and  greatest  oteirms  were,  that  the  whole  affair 
was  fortuitous  and  uncommon,  and  that  Lenette  was  in 
everything  her  antipodes. 

Poor  Firmian  !  at  the  feet  of  your  life,  even  when  it 
becomes  a  brook  of  pearls,  there  is  ever  a  board  of  warn- 
ing !  In  this  warm  temperature,  the  marriage-ring  must 
of  necessity  pinch  you,  —  as  in  general  all  rings  press 
tightly  in  a  warm  bath,  and  hang  loosely  in  a  cold  one. 

But  either  some  devilish  Naiad,  or  a  malicious  sea-god, 
took  the  greatest  pleasure  in  disturbing,  muddling,  and 
darkening  Firmian's  sea  of  life,  when  it  was  shining  en- 
chantingly  either  with  phosphorescent  sea  animalcuke  or 
some  innocent  electric  matter,  and  when  his  ship  left  a 
beaming  wake  behind  it ;  for  just  as  pleasure  and  the 
glory  of  the  garden  were  growing  every  moment  greater 
and  the  embarrassment  diminishing,  the  sorrowful  remem- 
brance of  the  late  loss  receding  more  into  the  background, 
and  the  forte-piano  or  the  fortissimo-pianissimo  and  vocal 
pieces  were  about  to  commence,  —  in  short,  just  as  all 
the  honey-cells  of  their  orangery  of  joy,  their  permitted 
Egyptian  flesh-pots,  and  a  deep  communion-cup  and  love 
communion-cup  were  opened,  —  what  should  spring  into 
the*loom  on  two  feet  but  a  great  buzzing  fly,  which  had 
often  flown  into  Firmian's  cup  of  joy  ! 

The  Venner  Everard  Rosa  von  Meyern,  gracefully 
attired  in  saffron-colored  garments,  entered  the  room  to 
pay  his  bride  the  ambassador's  privilege  of  a  first  visit ! 
In  all  his  life  he  had  never  done  otherwise  than  arrive 


142    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


either  too  late  or  too  soon  ;  in  like  manner  as  he  was 
never  serious,  but  either  whining  or  wanton.  The  form 
of  three  of  the  faces  was  now  that  of  a  long  duodecimo, 
—  Leibgeber  alone  did  not  stretch  his  upon  the  wire- 
drawer's  bench,  but  dyed  it  in  Ike  color-pot  and  furnace 
of  a  red  color,  because  he  had  a  particular  aversion  to 
dandies  and  maiden-hawks.  Everard  had  brought  with 
him  a  conceit,  ready  prepared  for  his  first  appearance, 
borrowed  from  Stolberg's  Homer  ;  he  intended  to  imitate 
Homer's  heroes,  and  to  ask  Aquiliana,  on  his  entrance, 
whether  she  were  a  goddess  or  a  mortal,  since  he  could 
only  contend  with  the  latter.  But,  on  beholding  the  male 
pair  which,  like  a  double-barrelled  gun,  the  Devil  pointed 
at  his  brain,  everything  in  the  latter  became  cheesy  and 
curdy  and  stiff.  He  could  not  bring  the  conceit  to  bear, 
even  for  twenty  kisses.  It  was  five  days  before  the  small 
contents  of  his  skull  were  sufficiently  recovered  to  enable 
him  to  deliver  the  idea  in  good  preservation  to  a  distant 
relation  of  mine.  How  otherwise  should  I  know  it  ?  In- 
deed, nothing  embarrassed  his  tactics  so  much  in  the  soci- 
ety of  women  as  a  man ;  and  he  would  rather  lay  siege 
to  a  whole  convent  of  women  alone  than  to  a  couple  of 
novices,  to  say  nothing  of  a  canoness,  if  one  single  miser- 
able man  happened  to  be  present.  Such  a  standing  troop 
of  players  never  acted  in  the  chateau  of  "  Fantaisie  "  as 
that  which  I  here  behold  presented  to  my  brush.  Natalie 
was  lost  in  impolite  amazement,  and  in  quietly  comparing 
this  original  edition  with  the  ideal  she  had  formed  from 
his  letters.  The  Venner,  who  took  for  granted  that  the 
result  of  this  comparison  was  quite  the  reverse  of  what  it 
really  was,  would  have  wished  to  have  been  a  palpable 
contradiction  to  himself,  and  his  own  antipodes,  if  he 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


H3 


could  have  managed  it ;  I  mean,  if  he  could  have  shown 
himself  at  one  and  the  same  time  offended  and  cold  to- 
wards Natalie,  because  of  finding  such  a  hateful  pair  in 
her  company,  and  intimate  and  tender,  in  order  that  on 
beholding  his  harvest  and  vintage  the  poor  couple  might 
be  filled  with  envy  and  vexation.  As  he  was  as  much 
surprised  at  her  appearance  as  she  at  his,  only  far  more 
agreeably,  and  as  he  reflected  that  there  would  be  plenty 
of  time  for  his  revenge,  he  now  preferred  boasting,  in 
order  to  season  and  bless  the  visit  of  the  two  advocates 
near  him  with  envy.  He  also  had  the  advantage  over 
both  of  them  in  possessing  a  body  of  light  artillery,  and 
he  brought  his  force  of  physical  charms  into  action  sooner 
than  either  of  them  could  bring  theirs.  Siebenkäs  thought 
of  nothing  nearer  than  his  wife.  On  Rosa's  arrival  he 
had  pastured  on  the  thought  as  on  a  sour  meadow  ;  for 
his  self-love  was  not  touched  by  the  rough  bark  of  the 
married  hand,  as  softly  as  by  snail's  horns,  or  a  virgin's 
downy  fingers  ;  but  now  the  thought  of  Lenette  was  a 
sweet  meadow,  because  his  jealousy  of  Rosa,  which  was 
domiciled  in  two  places,  was  less  excited  by  Lenette's 
behavior  than  by  the  relationship  in  which  the  Venner 
stood  to  Natalie.  Henry's  eyes  grew  fiercer  in  grimness, 
and  wandered  up  and  down  Rosa's  summer  hareskin  and 
gall-colored  silk  with  bilious  looks.  In  the  fidget  of  his 
irritation  he  groped  in  his  waistcoat-pocket,  and  clutched 
the  profile  of  the  Heimlicher  von  Blaise,  which  it  will  be 
remembered  he  had  cut  out,  as  like  as  two  peas,  on  the 
evening  when  he  trampled  on  the  glass  wig,  and  in  regard 
to  which  nothing,  for  a  whole  year,  had  caused  him  so 
much  vexation  as  that  instead  of  lying  in  his  pocket  it 
had  not  been  on  the  gallows,  where,  on  the  evening  of 


144    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


his  departure,  lie  might  have  stuck  it  with  a  pin.  He 
drew  out  the  silhouette,  and,  whilst  he  was  pulling  it 
about,  he  glided  softly  to  and  fro  between  her  and  Rosa, 
and  muttered  to  Siebenkäs,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
Venner,  "  A  la  silhouette."  * 

Everard's  self-love  divined  these  flattering  but  involun- 
tary sacrifices  of  the  wounded  self-love  of  the  others  ;  and, 
becoming  ever  more  and  more  supercilious  towards  the 
Advocate  of  the  Poor,  he  related  fragments  of  his  jour- 
neys, gave  greetings  from  his  acquaintance,  and  put  im- 
portunate questions  to  the  embarrassed  girl  concerning 
the  reception  of  his  letters.  The  brothers,  Siebenkäs  and 
Leibgeber,  sounded  a  retreat ;  but,  like  true  men,  they 
were  a  little  displeased  with  the  innocent  Natalie,  just  as 
if  she  could  have  prevented  the  entrance  of  the  sponsus 
and  letter  husband  by  any  such  rude  apprentice-greeting 
as  the  following :  "  Sir,  you  can  never  be  my  master,  even 
supposing  you  to  be  nothing  worse  than  a  rascal,  fool, 
scarecrow,  fop,  &c."  !  But  must  not  all  of  us  (for  I  don't 
think  I  am  an  exception)  strike  our  bony,  sinful  bosoms, 
and  confess  that  we  spit  fire  whenever  modest  girls  omit 
doing  so  at  those  whom  we  have  blackened  and  excom- 
municated in  their  presence,  —  that,  further,  we  expect  to 
find  them  quick  to  discard  wicked  squires,  although  they 
are  not  quick  to  receive  them,  —  and  that  they  should 
care  as  little  about  the  forced  marches  and  honorable  re- 
treats of  their  cottiers  and  other  feudal  tenants  as  the  rest 
of  us  fief-holders,  —  and,  lastly,  that  we  are  offended  with 
them,  not  so  much  on  account  of  their  infidelity  as  for  an 

*  The  profile  took  its  other  name  from  the  Comptroller-General  Sil- 
houette. In  Paris,  an  empty,  blank  physiognomy  is  called  a  face  a  la 
silhouette- 


CHAPTER  XIII.  145 

innocent  opportunity  of  becoming  unfaithful !  Heaven 
Improve  the  persons  of  whom  I  have  just  spoken! 

Flrmian  and  Henry  roamed  about  for  some  hours  in 
the  enchanted  valley,  full  of  magic  flutes,  magic  vibra- 
tions, and  magic  mirrors,  but  without  ears  and  without 
eyes.  Their  conversation  upon  the  event  made  th^ir 
heads  as  hot  as  balloon-furnaces,  and  Leibgeber  blew  out 
of  Fama's  trumpet  a  posteriori  nothing  but  blasts  of  sa- 
tirical abuse  against  every  woman  of  Baireuth  whom  he 
saw  walking  in  the  gardens.  He  represented  women  as 
the  worst  craft  in  which  a  man  could  embark  upon  the 
open  sea  of  life,  —  slave-ships  indeed,  and  bucentaurs  (if 
not  shuttles  *  with  which  the  Devil  weaves  his  hunting- 
nets  and  snares)  ;  and  the  resemblance  was  the  greater 
because,  like  other  ships  of  war,  they  were  frequently 
washed,  and  covered  all  over  with  a  poisonous  case  of 
copper  against  the  outward  world,  and  contained  also  just 
such  tarred  tackle  (ribbons).  Henry  had  come  with  the 
extremely  improbable  expectation  that  Natalie  would 
have  examined  his  friend  as  eye  and  ear  witness  con- 
cerning Rosa's  canonical  impediments  (ecclesiastical  pro- 
hibitions of  marriage)  ;  and  this  disappointment  vexed 
him  exceedingly. 

Just  as  Firmia^i  was  criticising  the  Venner's  lisping, 
confused  manner  of  speaking,  observing  that  his  words 
seemed  to  curl  about  the  tip  of  his  tongue  without  any 
expression,  Henry  exclaimed,  "  Yonder  runs  the  dirt- 
lily  ! "  t 

It  was  the  Venner,  like  a  pike  floundering  in  the  net 
jn  which  he  was  brought  to  market.     As  the  wood- 

*  In  German,  weberscldffe  ;  lit.  "  weaving-ships." 
t  The  yellow  gold,  or  asphodel  root. 

VOL.  II.  7  J 


146    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

pecker  (for  the  natural  historian  calls  every  bird  with 
bright  plumage  a  woodpecker)  approached  and  flew  past 
them,  they  saw  that  his  face  was  crimson  with  anger. 
Probably,  the  glue  which  connected  him  and  Natalie  had 
split  asunder. 

^jjjThe  two  friends  lingered  yet  a  little  while  in  the  shady 
paths  in  the  hope  of  meeting  her;  but  at  last  they  di- 
rected their  steps  towards  the  town,  when  they  overtook 
Natalie's  maid,  who  was  commissioned  to  carry  the  follow- 
ing note  to  Leibgeber  in  the  city :  — 

"You  and  your  friend,  alas!  were  right;  and  now  all 
is  over.  Let  me  rest,  and  reflect  a  short  time  in  solitude 
upon  the  ruins  of  my  futurity.  People  with  wounded 
lips  that  are  sewn  together  are  not  allowed  to  speak  ;  and 
it  is  not  my  lips,  but  my  heart,  that  bleeds  for  your  sex. 
I  also  blush  because  of  all  the  letters  I  have  hitherto 
written  with  pleasure,  and,  alas !  under  a  delusion ;  and 
yet  I  scarcely  ought  to  do  so.  Have  you  not  yourself 
said,  we  should  be  as  little  ashamed  of  innocent  joys  as 
of  blackberries,  although  after  the  enjoyment  they  leave 
a  black  stain  on  the  mouth  ?  But,  at  any  rate,  I  thank 
you  from  my  heart. 

"  As  I  must  one  day  have  been  disenchanted,  it  was 
exceedingly  mild  that  the  spell  was  nof  dissolved  by  the 
sorcerer  himself,  but  by  you  and  your  honest  friend,  to 
whom  I  beg  you  will  offer  my  kind  regards.  Yours, 

"A.  Natalie." 

Henry  had  expected  a  note  of  invitation  at  the  least, 
since  her  empty  heart,  he  said,  must  feel  a  coljl  void,  like, 
a  finger  of  which  the  nail  has  been  too  closely  cut.  But 
Firmian,  who  had  been  schooled  by  marriage,  and  had 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


H7 


thereby  acquired  barometer-scales  and  dial-plates  for  his 
observations  on  women,  was  wise  enough  to  be  of  opinion, 
that  in  the  hour  of  dismissing  a  lover  on  moral  grounds 
alone,  a  woman  must  needs  be  a  little  cool  towards  the 
man  who  persuaded  her  to  do  so,  even  though  he  were 
a  second  lover;  and  for  the  same  reason  (this  must  be 
added  by  myself),  immediately  after  her  coolness  she 
will  exceed  in  warmth  towards  him. 

"  Poor  Natalie  !  may  the  blossoms  and  the  flowers 
become  the  English  court-plaster  for  the  wounds  in  your 
heart,  and  the  mild  ether  of  spring  the  milk-cure  for  your 
oppressed,  panting  bosom!"  Such  was  the  unceasing 
wish  of  Firmian's  soul;  and  he  felt  it  acutely  that  an 
innocent  being  should  be  tried  and  punished  as  severely 
as  a  guilty  one,  and  that  she  had  to  draw  the  purifying 
air  of  her  life  from  poisonous  plants,  instead  of  from 
healthy  ones.* 

The  following  day,  all  that  Siebenkäs  did  was  to  write 
a  letter,  in  which  he  signed  himself  Leibgeber,  and 
wherein  he  informed  the  Count  of  Vaduz  that  he  was 
ill,  and  looked  as  grayish-yellow  as  a  Swiss  cheese. 
Henry  had  left  him  no  peace  until  he  did  it. 

'k  The  Count,"  said  he,  "  has  accustomed  himself  in  my 
person  to  the  idea  of  a  blooming,  fair,  glowing  inspector ; 
but  now,  if  he  is  made  acquainted  with  your  appearance 
by  letter,  he  will  not  be  surprised  at  the  reality,  and  will 
take  you  for  me.  Luckily  we  are  both  of  us  men  who 
have  no  need  to  unbutton  in  any  custom-house,t  having 
nothing  beneath  our  waistcoats  but  the  navel." 

*  Even  poisonous  plants,  as  is  well  known,  exhale  air  that  supports 
life. 

f  For  instance,  in  Engelhardszell,  the  Austrian  custom-house  officers 


148     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

On  Thursday,  as  Siebenkäs  stood  at  the  door  of  the 
hotel,  he  beheld  the  Venner,  in  a  court-dress,  with  a  lau- 
relled parade-head,  and  a  whole  vineyard  upon  his  face, 
driving  between  two  ladies  to  "Ermitage."  When  he 
carried  his  news  up-stairs,  Leibgeber  swore  that  "  the 
rogue  was  not  worthy  of  anybody,  except  one  who  had  a 
place  of  skulls  instead  of  a  head,  and  a  gorge  de  Paria, 
or,  reversing  the  direction,  a  cul  de  Paris,  instead  of  a 
heart.  He  was  determined  to  visit  Natalie,  and  inform 
her  of  what  they  had  seen  this  very  day  ;  but  Firmian 
positively  would  not  allow  him. 

On  Friday  she  herself  wrote  to  Henry,  as  follows :  — 

"  I  revoke  my  prohibition,  and  beg  you  and  your  friend 
to  visit  the  lovely  Fantaisie  to-morrow,  Saturday,  when 
it  will  be  depopulated,  rather  than  on  the  following  Sun- 
day. I  hold  nature  and  friendship  in  my  arms,  and  they 
cannot  contain  more.  Last  night  I  dreamt  that  you  were 
both  in  one  coffin,  and  a  white  butterfly,  hovering  above 
you,  grew  larger  and  larger,  until  his  wings  became  as 
large  as  wrhite  shrouds,  and  then  he  covered  you  both  ; 
and  beneath  the  shroud  all  was  motionless.  The  day 
after  to-morrow  my  dear  friend  arrives ;  and  I  hope 
you  will  come  to-morrow,  and  then  I  shall  take  leave  of 
you  all.  •  N.  A." 

The  events  of  this  Saturday  occupy  the  whole  of  the 
following  chapter;  and,  from  my  own  eagerness  on  the 
subject,  I  can  form  some  faint  idea  of  what  the  reader's 
must  be  ;  the  more  especially  as  I  have  already  read  it, 
if  not  written  it,  which  he  has  not. 

unbutton  every  paunch,  in  order  to  assure  themselves  of  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  cloth. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


Dismissal  of  a  Lover.  —  Fantaisie. — The  Child  with  the 
Nosegay.  —  The  Eden  of  Night,  and  the  Angel  at  the 
Gate  of  Paradise. 

^|^pjEITHER  the  deep  blue  of  the  sky,  which  on 
I  Saturday  was  as  dark  and  pure  as  in  winter 
or  in  the  night,  nor  the  thought  that  he  should 
see  to-day  the  sorrowing  soul  whom  he  had 
driven  from  her  paradise  by  the  Sodom-apple  of  the  ser- 
pent (Rosa),  nor  illness,  nor  yet  pictures  of  his  domestic 
life,  —  none  of  these  things  alone,  but  all  these  semitones 
and  flats  combined,  composed  in  our  Firmian's  mind  a 
melting  maestoso,  which  reflected  on  his  looks  and  imagi- 
nation as  much  softness  for  his  afternoon's  visit  as  he 
expected  to  find  in  Natalie's.  He  found  the  reverse.  In 
and  around  Natalie  reigned  that  nobler,  cold,  peaceful 
serenity,  which  has  its  image  on  the  loftiest  mountains. 
Clouds  and  storms  lie  beneath  their  summits,  and  around 
them  reposes  a  thinner,  cooler  atmosphere,  but  also  a 
darker  blue  and  a  paler  sun. 

I  cannot  blame  the  reader  for  having  some  curiosity  to 
hear  the  account  she  must  give  of  her  rupture  with  Ever- 
ard.  But  it  could  be  written  round  a  Prussian  dollar,  — 
so  short  a  one  did  she  give,  —  were  I  not  to  dilate  and 
complete  it  by  that  which  I  have  extracted  from  Rosa's 


150    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

pen  into  my  own.  The  fact  is,  the  Venner,  five  years 
afterwards,  wrote  a  very  good  novel  (if  we  are  to  believe 
the  panegyric  in  the  Universal  German  Library),  in 
which  he  artistically  interwove  the  whole  schism  between 
himself  and  her,  —  the  separation  of  soul  and  body,  —  so 
we  may  conclude,  at  least,  from  several  hints  dropped  by 
Natalie.  This,  therefore,  is  my  fountain  of  Vaucluse.  A 
spiritual  sheep,  like  Rosa,  cannot  produce  anything  but 
what  he  himself  has  experienced  ;  and  his  poetical  con- 
ceptions are  therefore  nothing  but  the  adopted  children 
of  reality. 

The  following  is  a  short  sketch  of  the  event :  — 

Scarcely  had  Firmian  and  Henry  disappeared  beneath 
the  trees,  when  the  Venner,  no  longer  deferring  his  re- 
venge, asked  Natalie,  in  an  offended  tone,  how  she  could 
permit  such  poor  plebeians  to  visit  her. 

Natalie,  wThose  feelings  were  already  kindled  by  the 
haste  and  coldness  of  the  two  who  had  left,  allowed  her 
fire  to  burst  out  into  flames  against  the  silken  catechumen. 
She  answered,  "  Such  a  question  is  almost  insulting " ; 
and  added  (for  she  was  too  warm  and  proud  to  dissemble 
and  act  the  spy),  "  you  yourself  have  frequently  visited 
Mr.  Siebenkäs." 

"  Properly  speaking,  only  his  wife,"  said  the  vain  man ; 
"  the  visit  to  him  was  only  the  pretence." 

u  Indeed  ! "  said  she,  and  stretched  out  the  syllables  as 
long  as  her  angry  look. 

Meyern  was  surprised  at  this  behavior,  which  con- 
tracted so  forcibly  with  all  their  previous  correspondence, 
—  a  circumstance  which  he  attributed  to  the  twin  cronies  . 
and,  worked  up  to  the  greatest  courage  by  his  own  beauty 
and  wealth,  and  her  poverty  and  dependence  upon  Blaise, 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


not  to  speak  of  his  near  right  of  husband,  this  bold  lion 
made  nothing  of  doing  what  no  other  would  have  ventured 
upon,  viz.  of  humbling  tins  angry  Venus  by  letting  her 
become  acquainted  with  his  appointments  as  cicisbeo,  and 
holding  up  before  her  the  prospect  in  perspective  of  a 
hundred  gynasia  and  widows'  seats  that  would  be  open  to 
him  in  the  future.    He,  therefore,  coolly  said  to  her : 

"It  is  so  easy  to  worship  false  goddesses,  and  to 
open  their  church-doors,  that  I  am  glad  that  by  your 
Babylonian  captivity  I  shall  be  brought  back  forever  to 
the  true  female  divinity."  * 

Her  wounded  heart  groaned  internally,  "  All,  all  is 
true  !  He  is  not  virtuous,  and  I  am  now  so  unhappy  ! " 
But  she  was  silent,  and  went  to  the  window.  But  when 
the  Venner,  wishing  to  make  amends  for  his  boasting  by 
a  sudden  transition  to  an  easy,  jesting  manner,  proposed 
a  walk  in  the  park  to  her  as  a  laetter  place  for  a  recon- 
ciliation (a  tone  which,  even  in  trifling  quarrels  with 
young  girls,  has  more  effect  in  smoothing  matters  than  a 
more  pompous  manner),  her  spirit,  which  was  one  be- 
longing to  the  feminine  order  of  chivalry,  and  always 
had  a  tendency  to  perform  heroic  deeds  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  in  which  a  predilection  for  premeditated  acts  of 
greatness  was  the  only  littleness,  —  her  beautiful  spirit, 
I  say,  now  expanded  its  pure  white  wings,  and  flew  away 
forever  from  the  dirty  heart  of  this  crooked  silver-scaled 
pike  ;  and  she  stepped  up  to  him,  and  said,  coloring,  but 
without  a  tear : 

"  Monsieur  von  Meyern,  it  is  now  decided  !  We  are 
parted  forever.  We  never  knew  one  another,  and  I  will 
have  no  further  acquaintance  with  you.  To-morrow  we 
will  exchange  our  letters." 


152     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

He  might  have  kept  possession  of  this  strong  mind 
many  days,  perhaps  weeks,  by  a  more  serious  manner. 

Without  taking  any  further  notice  of  him,  she  opened 
a  box,  and  began  to  sort  letters.  He  said  a  hundred 
tilings  to  flatter  and  please  her ;  but  she  did  not  even 
deign  him  an  answer.  His  inner  man  foamed  with  rage, 
because  he  laid  it  all  to  the  charge  of  the  Advocates.  At 
length  he  endeavored  at  once  to  humble  and  convert  the 
deaf  and  dumb  one,  by  observing  : 

"  I  don't  know  what  your  uncle  in  Kuhschnappel 
will  say  t»  this.  He  seems  to  put  a  much  higher  value 
upon  my  sentiments  towards  you  than  you  do  :  indeed, 
he  considers  the  connection  with  me  as  necessary  for  your 
fortune,  as  I  do  for  mine." 

This  burden  fell  too  heavily  upon  one  who  was 
already  deeply  wounded  by  Destiny.  Natalie  hastily 
shut  the  box,  seated  herself,  and,  supporting  her  dizzy 
head  upon  her  trembling  arms,  she  shed  burning  tears, 
which  she  in  vain  endeavored  to  conceal  with  her  hand  ; 
for  the  reproach  of  poverty  comes  out  of  the  mouth  of 
one  who  has  been  loved,  like  glowing  iron  entering  into 
the  heart  and  scorching  it,  as  with  flames.  Rosa,  whose 
satiated  revenge  gave  place  to  greedy  love,  and  who,  in 
his  selfish  emotion,  hoped  that  hers  too  was  an  emotion 
of  the  same  nature,  caused  by  their  severed  bond,  threw 
himself  on  his  knees  before  her,  and  exclaimed :  "  Let 
all  be  forgotten  !  What  are  we  then  quarrelling  about  ? 
Your  precious  tears  extinguish  everything,  and  I  mingle 
mine  with  them  abundantly." 

"  O,"  said  she,  very  proudly,  and  she  rose,  leaving 
him  on  his  knees,  "  I  am  not  weeping  at  anything  that 
m    concerns  you.    I  am  poor,  and  shall  remain  poor.  Sir, 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


153 


after  the  mean  reproach  you  have  made  me,  you  cannot 
possibly  remain  to  see  me  weep,  but  must  go  away." 

He  consequently  departed,  and  indeed,  considering 
all  he  had  to  bear,  he  went  tolerably  erect,  and  with 
suilicient  spirit.  His  serenity,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to 
praise  him,  was  the  more  worthy  of  admiration  that  he 
maintained  it,  and  carried  it  home  with  him,  on  an 
afternoon  when,  with  his  two  finest  and  longest  levers, 
he  had  been  unable  to  move  the  least  thing  in  Natalie's 
heart  and  heart's  ears.  One  of  these  levers  was  the  old 
one  he  had  employed  with  Lenette,  of  screwing  himself 
in,  like  a  corkscrew,  by  the  spiral  and  snail  line  of  little 
approaches,  attentions,  and  allusions;  but  Natalie  was  not 
weak  and  light  enough  for  such  degradation.  From  the 
otherlever  something  perhaps  might  have  been  expected, 
but  it  had  still  less  effect,  even  though  it  consisted  in 
exposing  all  his  scars,  like  an  old  warrior,  in  order  to  re- 
generate them  into  wounds ;  that  is  to  say,  he  laid  bare 
his  suffering  heart,  wounded  and  pierced  by  so  many  dis- 
appointments in  love,  and  which,  like  a  pierced  dollar, 
had  hung  upon  many  a  saint  as  votive  offering  ;  his  soul 
clad  itself  in  all  degrees  of  court-mourning  of  sorrow,  in 
deep  mourning,  and  half-mourning,  —  in  hopes,  like  a 
widow,  of  shining  more  enchantingly  in  its  black  dress. 
But  the  friend  of  a  Leibgeber  could  only  be  softened  by 
manly  sorrows,  while  effeminate  ones,  on  the  contrary, 
served  but  to  harden  her. 

However,  he  left  his  bride,  Natalie,  as  I  have  already 
signified,  without  being  at  all  moved  by  her  self-sacrifice 
and  without  being  particularly  indignant  at  her  refusal  of 
him.  "  Let  her  go  to  the  Devil !  *  thought  he,  and  he 
could  hardly  congratulate  himself  enough  on  so  easily 


154    FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


getting  rid  of  the  unpleasantness  of  being  obliged  to 
endure  and  respect  such  a  being,  year  after  year,  in  a 
confounded  long  marriage  ;  out  on  the  other  hand,  his 
spleen  was  excited  beyond  measure  against  Leibgeber, 
and  particularly  against  Siebenkäs,  whom  he  looked  upon 
B£  the  real  divorcer,  and  he  laid  the  foundation  of  several 
stones  in  the  gall-bladder,  and  of  a  little  bilious  yellow 
in  his  eyes,  all  owing  to  the  Advocate,  whom  he  could  not 
sufficiently  detest. 

We  return  to  the  Saturday.  Natalie  had  to  thank 
the  strength  of  her  heart  for  her  serenity  and  coldness, 
but  was  also  somewhat  indebted  to  the  pair  of  horses,  and 
two  flower-wreathed  maidens  or  rose-girls,  with  whom 
Rosa  had  driven  to  Ermitage.  A  woman's  jealousy  is 
always  some  days  older  than  a  woman's  love ;  and  ftideed 
I  know  no  excellence,  no  weakness,  no  sin,  no  virtue,  no 
womanliness,  no  manliness,  in  a  girl,  which  would  not 
tend  rather  to  inflame  than  to  weaken  her  jealousy. 

Not  only  Siebenkäs,  but  even  Leibgeber,  instead  of 
clothing,  as  was  his  wont,  his  premiums  and  reproofs  in 
irony,  was  this  afternoon  serfous  and  cordial,  in  order  to 
warm,  as  it  were,  with  his  breath,  her  naked,  shivering 
soul,  deprived  of  its  warm  feathers.  Perhaps,  also,  he 
was  softened  by  her  flattering  obedience.  Besides  the 
above  reasons,  Firmian  was  affected  by  these  warmer 
ones ;  to-morrow  the  English  lady  was  coming  back, 
who  would  put  a  stop  to  this  garden -pleasure  ;  better 
acquainted  also  with  the  wounds  of  lost  love,  he  felt 
infinite  sympathy  with  hers,  and  would  willingly  have 
given  his  heart's  blood  to  compensate  her  loss  ;  and, 
thirdly,  having  grown  up  in  bare,  ordinary  rooms,  he 
was  influenced  by  the  splendid  furnished  ones  around 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


155 


him,  —  a  sentiment  he  naturally  transferred  to  their 
denizen  and  hermitress. 

Just  then  the  maid,  who  has  already  appeared  before 
us  once  in  the  course  of  the  week,  came  into  the  room, 
with  her  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  stammered  out,  that 
she  was  going  to  the  confessional,  asking  if  she  had  done 
anything  to  offend  her,  &c. 

"  Me  !  "  said  Natalie,  with  her  eyes  overflowing  with 
love  and  kindness  ;  "  but  I  can  also  pardon  you  in  the 
name  of  your  mistress,  the  English  lady,"  and  she  went 
out  with  her  and  kissed  her,  like  a  good  genius,  unseen. 
How  beautiful  and  becoming  is  the  act  of  forgiving,  and 
condescension  towards  the  oppressed,  in  a  soul  which 
previously  had  manfully  and  courageously  resisted  the 
oppressor ! 

Leibgeber  took  a  volume  of  "  Tristram  Shandy  "  out 
of  the  library  of  the  English  lady,  and  lay  down  with  it 
under  the  nearest  tree  ;  he  wished  to  make  over  to  his 
friend  the  undivided  enjoyment  of  the  anise  march-pane 
and  honeycomb  of  such  an  afternoon  of  conversation, 
which  for  him  had  already  become  ordinary  food.  To- 
day too,  whenever  he  seemed  inclined  to  jest,  Natalie's 
eyes  looked  on  him  beseechingly,  as  if  to  say :  "  Do  it 
not ;  do  not  expose  to  him  my  inward  scars  ;  spare  me 
this  once."  And,  lastly,  and  this  was  his  chief  motive, 
it  would  thus  become  easier  to  Firmian  to  show  in 
crooked  letters  behind  a  treble  shroud  his  proposal  to 
the  sensitive  Natalie,  who  was  now  put  upon  eighth- 
pay,  to  become  his  laughing  heiress,  his  appanaged 
widow. 

This  was  for  Siebenkäs  a  labor  at  the  fortifications, 
a  journey  over  the  Alps,  a  voyage  round  the  world,  or 


i56 


FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


into  the  cavern  of  Antiparos,  and  a  discovery  of  the 
longitude  at  sea.  He  did  not  even  think  of  preparing 
the  way  for  it;  and  he  had  previously  told  Leibgeber 
that  if  his  death  were  a  real  one,  no  one  would  be  more 
willing  to  speak  to  her  about  it  than  himself;  but  he 
could  not  possibly  sadden  her  with  the  mention  of  a  mock 
death ;  she  must,  therefore,  agree  to  the  widowhood  at  a 
venture,  and  unconditionally. .  "  And  is  my  death  a  thing 
so  impossible  ?  "  he  demanded. 

"  Yes,"  had  Leibgeber  answered,  "  or  where  would  be 
our  death  in  jest  ?  and  the  donna  must  endure  it." 

His  conduct,  it  seems,  was  somewhat  harder  and 
colder  towards  women's  hearts  than  that  of  Siebenkü-, 
in  whose  opinion,  as  hermit-connoisseur  of  strong-minded 
women,  such  a  tender  and  suffering  soul  could  scarcely 
be  sufficiently  indulged ;  but  I  will  not  judge  between 
the  two  friends. 

When  Henry  had  gone  out  with  Yorick,  Siebenkäs 
placed  himself  before  a  fresco-painting  which  represented 
this  sam^Yorick  near  the  flute-playing  Maria  and  her 
goat  ;  for  the  apartments  of  the  great  are  picture-bibles 
and  an  orbis  pictus.  They  sit,  eat,  and  walk  in  pictorial 
exhibitions  ;  and  it  is  therefore  the  more  unpleasant  to 
them,  that  two  of  the  widest  spaces  which  are  ready 
grounded,  the  heavens  and  the  sea,  cannot  be  painted 
over  for  them.  Natalie  had  scarcely  approached  him 
when  she  exclaimed,  "  What  is  there  to  be  seen  in  that 
to-day  ?    Away  from  it !  " 

She  was  just  as  open  and  unembarrassed  in  her  man- 
ner towards  him  as  he  could  not  be  towards  her.  She 
revealed  the  beauty  of  her  ardent  soul  in  that  by  which 
we  unconsciously  either  unveil  or  unmask  ourselves  most 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


»57 


completely,  that  is,  in  her  manner  of  praising.  The  illu- 
minated triumphal  arch  which  she  erected  over  the  head 
of  her  returning  English  friend,  elevated  her  own  soul, 
and  she  stood  as  conqueror  with  the  laurel-crown  and 
the  flittering  chain  of  the  order  of  virtue  at  the  gate  of 
honor.  Her  praise  was  the  echo  and  double  chorus  of 
the  other's  worth  :  she  was  so  earnest  and  so  warm.  O, 
a  thousand  times  more  lovely  do  ye  appear,  maidens, 
when  ye  weave  bridal  and  laurel  garlands  for  your  com- 
panions, than  when  ye  twine  and  bend  for  them  straw- 
crowns  and  iron-collars  !  She  told  him  of  her  predilection 
tor  English  men.  and  women,  both  in  and  out  of  print ; 
although  it  was  only  last  winter  that  she  saw  an  English- 
man for  the  first  time  in  her  life,  —  "  if,"  added  she,  smil- 
ing, "  our  friend  yonder  was  not  the  first." 

Leibgeber  looked  up  from  his  green  couch,  and  he 
saw  them  both  looking  down  upon  him  kindly  through 
the  open  window,  and  the  radiance  of  love  flowed  from 
six  eyes.  How  sweetly  one  single  second  united  three 
sister  souls  !  When  the  maid  returned  from  confession, 
in  her  white  glittering  garments,  which,  instead  of  light 
butterfly-wings,  were  thick  wing-shells,  and  on  which 
fluttered  a  few  extra  wings  of  ribbon,  he  looked  at  this 
ornamented  penitent  a  moment,  and  took  up  the  black- 
and-gold  hymn-book,  which,  in  her  haste,  she  had  put 
down.  He  unclasped  it,  and  found  inside  a  whole  col- 
lection of  silk-patterns,  and,  further  on,  peacocks'  feath- 
ers. Natalie,  who  read  in  the  expression  of  his  face  a 
satirical  reflection  upon  her  sex,  diverted  it  by  saying, 
*  That  your  sex  esteems  ornament  as  much  as  ours  is 
proved  by  the  electoral  dresses,  the  coronation-robes  in 
Frankfort,  and  all  official  costumes  and  uniforms  ;  the 


158    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


peacock,  too,  is  the  bird  of  the  ancient  knights  and 
poets.  If  these  were  permitted  to  swear  by  his  feathers, 
or  crown  themselves  with  them,  we  may  surely  put  on  a 
few,  and  mark,  if  we  may  not  reward,  our  songs  with 
them." 

An  unpolite  astonishment  at  her  knowledge  some- 
times escaped  the  Advocate.  He  turned  over  the  leaves 
of  the  festival  hymn-book,  and  stumbled  upon  gilded 
pictures  of  the  Madonna,  and  upon  one  picture,  in  open 
tracery-work,  which  consisted  of  two  colored  blots,  repre- 
senting two  lovers,  together  with  a  third  phosphorescent 
heart,  which  the  male  blot  offered  to  the  female  blot, 
with  the  words  :  — 

"  Hast  thou  my  true  love  yet  to  learn  ? 
Behold  how  my  poor  heart  doth  burn !  " 

Firmian  loved  family  and  company  miniatures  when 
they  were  wretched  like  the  present.  Natalie  saw  and 
read  it,  and  taking  the  book  hastily  away,  she  snapped 
the  clasp,  and  then  first  asked  him,  "  You  have  no  objec- 
tion to  it?" 

Courage  towards  women  is  not  innate,  but  acquired. 
Firmian  had  associated  with  few;  therefore  his  awe 
caused  him  to  look  upon  a  woman's  person,  especially 
that  of  a  noble  lady  (for  it  is  easy  and  right  to  be  supe- 
rior to  rank  with  regard  to  men,  but  not  to  women),  as 
a  holy  ark  of  the  covenant,  which  no  finger  may  touch, 
and  every  woman's  foot  as  one  upon  which  a  Spanish 
queen  stands,  and  every  woman's  finger  as  a  Franklin's 
point  from  which  electric  sparks  shoot  out.  If  she  had 
been  in  love  with  him,  I  could  have  compared  her  to  an 
electrified  person,  who  herself  experiences  all  the  mock 
pains  and  shocks  which  °he  gives.     However,  nothing 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


'59 


was  more  natural  than  that  his  shyness  should  diminish 
with  time ;  and,  at  last,  he  even  ventured,  when  she 
was  not  looking  round,  to  take  the  ribbon  of  her  cap 
boldly  between  his  fingers,  without  her  observing  it.  As 
a  sort  of  preparation  for  such  a  venturesome  deed,  might 
be  considered  his  attempts  to  take  into  his  hands  the 
tilings  that  had  often  passed  through  hers,  —  even  her 
English  scissors,  an  unscrewed  pincushion,  and  a  pen- 
cil-case. 

He  attempted  the  same  familiarity  with  a  waxen 
bunch  of  grapes,  which  he  thought  was  made  of  stone, 
like  those  on  butter-bowls.  He  therefore  squeezed  it  in 
his  hand  as  in  a  wine-press,  smashed  two  or  three  ber- 
ries, and  then  handed  in  petitions  for  grace  and  indul- 
gence, as  though  he  had  let  fall  and  broken  to  pieces 
the  porcelain-tower  in  Nankin. 

She  said,  smiling,  "  There  is  nothing  lost.  .^Among 
our  joys  there  are  plenty  of  such  berries,  which  have  a 
beautiful  ripe  skin,  are  without  any  intoxicating  juice, 
and  just  as  easily  fall  to  pieces." 

He  feared  that  this  sublime  many-colored  rainbow  of 
his  joy  would  melt  into  evening  dew,  and  sink  with  the 
outer  sun ;  and  he  was  dismayed  by  no  longer  seeing 
Leibgeber  reading  upon  the  blooming  turf.  The  external 
world  became  transfigured  into  a  sun-land  ;  every  tree 
wns  a  more  solid,  richer  joy-flower;  the  valley,  like  a 
condensed  universe,  seemed  to  echo  the  deep  murmuring 
music  of  the  spheres.  Nevertheless,  he  had  not  the  cour- 
age to  offer  his  arm  to  this  Venus  for  a  walk  in  the  sun, 
that  is,  in  the  sunny  Fantaisie.  The  fate  of  the  Venner, 
and  the  gleanings  of  a  few  wandering  visitors,  made  him 
shy  and  dumb. 


l6o    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


Suddenly  Henry  knocked  at  the  window  with  the 
agate  head  of  his  stick,  and  called  out,  "  Over  the  way  to 
supper.  The  stick's  head  is  the  Vienna-lantern,*  and  we 
shall  not  get  home  to-day  before  midnight."  (He  had 
ordered  supper  for  himself  and  his  friend  in  the  little 
neighboring  inn.)  All  at  once  he  added,  "There  is  a 
pretty  child  just  asking  for  you." 

Siebenkäs  hastened  out,  and  the  same  pretty  little  girl 
to  whom  he  had  given  his  flowers,  in  his  enthusiastic 
flight  through  the  village  of  Johannes,  after  the  great 
festive  evening  in  Ermitage,  stood  before  him  with  a 
little  nosegay,  and  asked  him  where  his  wife  was,  who 
had  taken  her,  a  few  days  ago,  out  of  the  water.  "  I 
have  a  few  pretty  flowers  to  give  her  from  my  god- 
father, and  my  mother  will  soon  come  and  thank  the  lady 
herself ;  but  she  is  now  in  bed,  and  is  far  too  ill." 

Natalie,  who  had  heard  the  conversation  from  above, 
came  down,  and  said,  blushing,  "  Dear  little  one,  was  it 
not  I  ?    Give  me  your  little  nosegay." 

The  little  girl  recognized  her,  kissed  her  hand,  the 
hem  of  her  garment,  then  her  mouth,  and  was  about 
to  begin  the  round  of  kisses  over  again,  when  Natalie 
opened  the  nosegay,  and,  amid  its  living  forget-me-not 
and  white  and  red  roses,  discovered  also  artificial  ones 
of  silk. 

On  Natalie's  asking,  in  surprise,  where  she  had  got 
these  expensive  flowers,  the  little  girl  answered,  "  If  you 
will  give  me  a  few  kreuzers,  I  will  tell  you " :  and  on 

*  We  have  all  read  in  the  newspapers,  that  at  the  gala-masquerades 
at  Vienna  a  paper  lantern  is  borne  aloft,  with  the  inscription,  "  Sup- 
per is  on  the  table."  This  may,  therefore,  be  called  the  Vienna-lan- 
tern. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


161 


obtaining  them,  continued,  "  From  my  godfather ;  he  is 
a  very  fine  gentleman "  ;  and  so  saying  she  ran  away 
among  the  bushes. 

The  nosegay  was  for  all  of  them  a  real  Turkish 
Sebim-flower-riddle.  Leibgeber  easily  explained  the 
child's  speedy  marriage  of  Natalie  and  Siebenkäs  by  the 
fact  that  the  Advocate  had  stood  near  her  at  the  basin, 
and  stretched  out  a  helping  hand  ;  and  from  their  per- 
sonal resemblance  to  each  other,  the  people  had  con- 
cluded that  no  one  had  been  so  often  walking  with  her 
as  the  Advocate,  mistaking  him  for  Leibgeber. 

But  Siebenkäs  thought  more  about  the  plotter  Rosa, 
who  loved  to  stitch  the  patchwork  scenes  of  his  life  into 
every  woman's  affairs  ;  and  the  resemblance  of  these 
artificial  flowers  to  those  which  the  Venner  had  once  re- 
deemed for  Lenette  in  Kuhschnappel  was  striking ;  but 
he  would  not  disturb  the  glad  hour,  and  the  pleasure 
caused  by  the  votive  flower-offering  of  the  preserved 
child,  by  mentioning  his  suspicions.  Natalie  kindly  in- 
sisted on  dividing  the  flower-inheritance,  as  each  had 
done  something,  and  they  had  at  least  saved  the  pre- 
server. The  white  silk  rose  she  kept  for  herself,  and 
offered  Leibgeber  the  red  one,  who,  however,  declined 
it,  demanding  a  sensible  real  one  in  its  stead,  which  he 
immediately  stuck,  into  his  mouth.  To  the  Advocate  she 
gave  the  silk  forget-me-not,  and  a  few  living  breathing 
ones  beside,  the  souls,  as  it  were,  of  the  artificial  flowers. 
He  received  them  with  rapture,  and  said  the  soft  living 
ones  would  never  fade  for  him.  Thereupon  Natalie 
took  only  a  short  temporary  leave  of  them  ;  but  Firmian 
could  not  thank  his  friend  enough  for  all  the  means 
he  had  adopted  to  lengthen  a  period  of  grace  which 

VOL.  II.  k 


IÖ2 


FLOWER,  FRUIT, 


AND 


THORN  PIECES. 


encircled  his  worn-out  life  with  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth. 

No  king  of  Spain,  although  by  the  laws  of  the  em- 
pire a  hundred  dishes  are  sent  up  to  his  table,  can  take 
as  little  from  no  more  than  six,  as  Firmian  took  from 
one.  But  trustworthy  historians  inform  us  that  he 
was  willing  to  drink  something,  and  that  was  wine,  — 
and  hastily  too ;  for  he  could  not  be  happy  enough 
to-day  for  his  Leibgeber,  since  the  latter,  seldom  over- 
taken by  feelings  on  his  own  account,  felt  a  more  in- 
expressible joy  that  his  dear  Firmian  had  at  last  got  a 
pole-star  and  star  of  happiness  and  rest,  high  above 
him  in  the  heavens,  which  now  beamed,  with  a  genial 
warmth,  upon  the  blossoming  season  of  his  thinly-sown 
flowers. 

By  the  rapidity  of  his  double  enjoyment  he  got  the 
start  of  the  sun,  and  returned  to  the  rose-tinted  chateau, 
the  windows  of  which  the  glorious  evening  gilded  with 
fire.  Natalie  stood  without  on  the  balcony,  like  an  illu- 
mined soul  about  to  fly  after  the  sun ;  and  her  large  eyes 
were  fixed  on  the  bright  trembling  world-rotunda,  full  of 
church-music,  and  on  the  sun,  which,  like  an  angel,  had 
flown  down  from  the  temple,  and  on  the  beaming,  holy 
sepulchre  of  the  night,  into  which  the  earth  was  about 
to  sink. 

While  they  were  yet  beneath  the  balcony  to  which 
Natalie  beckoned  them  to  come  up,  Henry  gave  his 
stick  to  his  friend  :  "  Keep  it  for  me ;  I  have  other  things 
to  carry  ;  if  you  want  me,  whistle."  The  good  Henry, 
beneath  a  physically  shaggy  bear's  breast,  had  the  most 
beautiful  human  heart. 

Happy    Firmian  !    notwithstanding   your  afflictions. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


163 


When  you  now  step  through  the  glass-door  upon  the 
iron-floor,  the  sun  sets  over  again,  and  the  earth  closes 
her  large  eye,  like  that  of  a  dying  goddess  !  Then  the 
mountains  smoke  about  you  like  altars  ;  the  choruses 
burst  from  the  woods  ;  shadows,  the  veils  of  day,  flutter 
•around  the  kindled  transparent  tree-tops,  and  lie  upon 
the  variegated  brooches  of  flowers  ;  and  the  gold-tinsel 
of  the  evening-red  casts  a  dead  golden  hue  upon  the 
feast,  and  falls  with  rosy  colors  on  the  floating  bosom 
of  the  trembling  lark,  the  high-hung  evening-bell  of 
Nature!  Happy  man  !  when  a  glorious  spirit  flies  from 
afar  over  the  earth  and  its  spring,  and  beneath  him  a 
thousand  lovely  evenings  are  concentrated  into  one  burn- 
ing one,  —  that  evening  is  yet  not  more  elysian  than  the 
one  which  now  glows  around  you. 

"When  the  flames  upon  the  windows  grew  pale,  and  the 
moon  was  still  rising  heavily  from  behind  the  earth,  they 
both  went  down,  silent  and  with  full  hearts,  into  the  twi- 
light apartment.  Firmian  opened  the  piano-forte,  and 
repeated  his  evening  in  tones,  the  trembling  chords  becom- 
ing the  tiery  tongues  of  his  oppressed  bosom.  The  flower- 
tehes  of  his  youth  were  blown  away,  and  beneath  them  a 
few  young  minutes  bloomed  again!  But  when  the  tones 
poured  the  warm  balsam  of  life  over  Natalie's  restrained, 
swollen  heart,  whose  wounds  were  only  closed,  not  healed, 
it  seemed  to  melt  gently  away ;  and  all  the  heavy  tears 
which  had  burned  within  flowed  out  of  it  without  measure, 
and  it  became  wreak  but  light.  Firmian,  w4io  perceived 
that  she  was  again  passing  through  the  gate  of  sacrifice 
to  the  knife,  put  an  end  to  the  sacrificial  music,  and 
sought  to  lead  her  away  from  this  altar.  Suddenly  the  % 
first  beam  of  the  moon  spread  itself,  like  a  swan's  wing, 


164    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


upon  the  waxen  bunch  of  grapes.  He  begged  her  to 
come  out  into  the  still,  misty  after-summer  of  the  day,  — 
the  moon-evening.  She  gave  him  her  arm  without  say- 
ing "yes." 

What  a  sparkling  world  !  Through  branches  and 
through  fountains,  over  mountains  and  over  woods,  flowed* 
flashing  the  molten  veins  of  silver,  which  the  moon  had 
separated  from  the  dross  of  night.  Her  silver  glance 
glided  over  the  broken  wave  and  the  trembling  smooth 
apple-leaf,  and  closely  embraced  the  white  marble  pillars 
and  the  shining  birch-tree  stems.  They  stood  still  before 
they  entered  the  magic  valley,  as  into  an  enchanted  cav- 
ern, playing  with  Night  and  Light,  into  which  all  the 
fountains  of  life,  which  in  the  daytime  had  thrown  up 
sweet  odors,  and  voices,  and  songs,  and  transparent  and 
feathery  wings,  had  now  again  fallen  back,  and  filled  a 
deep,  silent  gulf. 

They  turned  towards  the  Sophia-mountain,  whose  sum- 
mit was  flattened  by  the  weight  of  time,  and  on  which, 
instead  of  the  Alpine  peak,  arose  the  Colossus  of  Fog ; 
they  glanced  over  the  pale  green  world,  slumbering  be- 
neath the  more  distant  and  tranquil  suns,  and  looked 
on  the  silver  dust  of  stars,  which  flew  far  away  into 
the  furthest  depths  before  the  up-rolling  moon,  and  then 
they  looked  at  one  another,  filled  with  pious  friendship, 
as  only  two  innocent  glad  angels,  on  their  first  creation, 
can  look  for  joy ;  and  Firmian  said,  "  Are  you  as  happy 
as  I?" 

Involuntarily  pressing,  not  his  hand  but  his  arm,  she 
answered,  "No,  I  am  not;  for  upon  such  a  night  there 
must  follow  no  day,  but  something  much  more  beautiful, 
something  richer,  which  satisfies  the  thirsty  heart,  and 
stops  the  bleeding  one." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


165 


"  And  what  is  that  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Death,"  said  she,  gently.  She  lifted  up  her  streaming 
eyes  to  him,  and  repeated,  "  Noble  friend,  is  it  not  so  ? 
for  me,  death  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Firmian  ;  "  rather  for  me." 

To  interrupt  the  course  of  this  overpowering  moment, 
she  added  quickly,  "  Shall  we  go  down  to  the  spot  where 
we  met  for  the  first  time,  and  where,  two  days  too  soon, 
I  became  your  friend  ?  —  and  yet  it  was  not  too  soon ; 
shall  we  ?  " 

He  obeyed  her ;  but  his  soul  was  still  dwelling  on  the 
former  thought ;  and  while  they  were  going  down  a  long 
sloping  gravel-walk,  sprinkled  over  by  the  shadows  of  the 
shrubbery,  down  whose  white  bed,  broken  by  shadows  as 
by  stones,  the  moonlight  rippled,  he  said,  "Yes,  in  an 
hour  like  this,  when  death  and  heaven  send  their  broth- 
ers,* a  soul  such  as  yours  may  think  of  death  ;  but  I  have 
yet  more  reason,  for  I  am  more  joyful.  O,  Joy,  most  of 
all,  loves  to  see  Death  at  her  festive  board ;  for  he  is 
himself  a  joy,  and  the  last  rapture  of  earth.  Only  the 
vulgar  can  confound  the  heavenward  soaring  flight  of 
humanity  into  the  far  land  of  the  spring  with  the  mock 
funereal  phenomena  on  the  earth;  in  the  same  manner 
as  they  take  the  hooting  of  the  owls,  on  their  departure 
for  warmer  climes,  for  the  rattling  of  ghosts :  and  yet, 
good  Natalie,  in  your  case,  I  cannot  bear  to  think  of  what 
you  have  said.  No  !  a  soul  so  rich  must  unfold  its  blos- 
soms in  an  earlier  spring  than  that  beyond  this  life,  —  O 
God,  it  must !  "  « 

They  reached  a  wall  of  rock,  clothed  by  the  broad 
waterfall  of  the  moonlight,  against  which  was  a  trellis  of 

*  Death  sends  sleep,  and  heaven  the  dream. 


l66    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


roses.  Natalie  broke  off  a  green,  soft,  thorny  twig,  with 
two  little  rose-buds  just  beginning  to  swell,  and  saying, 
'k  You  will  never  open,1'  she  put  them  into  her  bosom ; 
then,  looking  at  him  with  a  strange  expression,  she  added, 
"  W  hile  they  are  quite  young  they  prick  but  little." 

Arrived  below,  at  the  stone  water-basin,  the  holy  spot 
of  their  first  meeting,  as  they  were  both  seeking  words 
wherewith  to  express  the  feelings  of  their  hearts,  they 
beheld  some  one  ascend  from  the  dry  basin.  With  a 
smile  of  emotion  they  recognized  their  Leibgeber,  who 
had  hidden  himself  here,  among  the  imaged  water-gods, 
with  a  bottle  of  wine,  and  lay  in  wait  for  their  coming. 
There  had  been  something  in  his  agitated  eye  which  had 
flowed  out  of  it,  as  a  libation  from  our  cup  of  joy,  for 
this  spring-night. 

"  This  place,  and  haven  of  your  first  landing,"  said  he, 
"  must  be  properly  consecrated ;  you,  too  (to  Nafalie), 
must  join  in  the  pledge.  By  Heaven  !  there  is  more  costly 
fruit  hanging  to-day  within  reach,  from  its  blue  dome, 
than  from  any  green  one." 

They  each  took  a  glass,  pledged  one  another,  and  said, 
—  some  among  them,  I  fancy,  in  a  stifled  voice,  —  "  Long 
live  friendship  !  May  the  spot  be  ever  green  where  it 
commenced  !  May  every  place  bloom  where  it  grew  ! 
and  when  all  its  bloom  is  over,  and  its.  leaves  withered 
and  fallen,  may  friendship  still  continue  !  " 

Natalie  was  obliged  to  turn  away  her  eyes.  Henry 
laid  his  hand  upon  his  agate  stick-head,  but  only  that  he 
might  prtes  warmly  and  heartily  the  hand  of  his  friend, 
which  rested  upon  it,  for  Firmian  still  had  it ;  and  he 
said,  "  Give  it  to  me !  you  shall  have  no  clouds  in  your 
hand  to-day  "  ;  for  Nature,  in  her  subterranean  workshop, 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


167 


had  engraven  cloudy  streaks  upon  the  agate.  This  bash- 
ful concealment  of  the  warm  token  of  friendship  would 
have  touched  every  heart,  not  Natalie's  tender  one 
alone. 

"  You  will  stay  with  us,"  said  she,  faintly,  as  he  was 
about  to  go  away. 

"  I  am  going  to  the  landlord,"  he  answered ;  "  and  if  I 
can  find  a  flute  or  wood-horn,  I  shall  come  out,  and  usher 
in  the  spring  by  wafting  music  over  the  valley." 

When  he  disappeared,  it  seemed  to  his  friend  as  if  his 
youth  were  gone.  All  at  once,  high  above  the  giddy 
May-chafers,  and  breeze-borne  night-butterflies,  and  their 
arrow-swift  hunters  the  bats,  he  beheld  a  broad  flight  of 
birds  of  passage,  winging  back  to  our  spring,  and  looking 
like  a  fleecy  cloud.  Hereupon  ihe  recollections  of  his 
room  in  the  market-town,  his  evening  journal,  and  the 
hour  when,  after  a  similar  appearance  of  earlier  birds  of 
passage,  he  had  closed  it  with  the  conviction  that  he 
would  soon  cease  to  live,  —  these  recollections  rushed 
with  all  their  tears  into  his  open  heart,  and  again  inspired 
him  with  the  expectation  of  death  ;  and  this  idea  he  de- 
sired to  communicate  to  his  friend.  The  broad  night  lay 
stretched  out  before  him,  like  a  great  corpse  upon  the 
world ;  but  her  shadowy  limbs  quivered  among  the 
moonlit  branches  in  the  breath  of  the  morning,  and  she 
rises  up  before  the  sun  as  a  consuming  vapor,  —  as  an 
all-embracing  cloud,  —  and  man  says,  "  It  is  day  !  " 

In  Firmian's  soul  two  crape-covered  thoughts  struggled 
together,  like  images  of  terror.  The  one  said,  he  would 
die  of  apoplexy,  and  would  see  her  no  more ;  the  other, 
that  he  was  about  to  simulate  death,  and  then  that  he  dare 
not  see  her  again. 


i68    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

Oppressed  by  the  past  and  the  present,  he  took  Nata- 
lie's hand,  and  said :  "  You  may  pardon  me  to-day  the 
deepest  emotion.  I  shall  never  see  you  again.  You 
are  the  noblest  of  your  sex  that  I  ever  met;  but  we 
shall  never  meet  again.  You  will  soon  hear  that  I  am 
dead,  or  that  my  name  has  disappeared,  in  whatever  man- 
ner it  may  be ;  but  my  heart  is  yours  —  is  thine.  .  .  . 
O  that  the  present,  with  its  mountain-chain  of  tombs, 
were  behind  me!  and  that,  the  future,  with  all  its  open 
graves,  now  lay  before  me^  and  I  were  standing  to-day 
beside  the  last  cavern ;  I  would  then  look  at  you  once 
more,  and  cast  myself  dowTn  in  bliss  ! " 

Natalie  answered  not  a  word.  All  at  once  she  fal- 
tered in  her  walk,  her  arm  trembled,  her  breathing  be- 
came oppressed.  She  t  stopped,  and  said,  in  a  trembling 
voice,  her  face  quite  pale,  "  Stay  on  this  spot ;  leave 
me  for  a  moment  alone  on  yonder  turf-seat.  Ah !  I  am 
so  hasty!" 

He  saw  her  tremble  as  she  moved  away,  and  then  sink, 
as  if  overcome  by  a  great  weight,  upon  a  turf-bank,  in 
the  moonlight.  She  fixed  her  blinded  eyes  on  the  moon, 
around  which  the  blue  heavens  became  a  night,  and  the 
earth  a  vapor ;  her  arms  lay  rigid  on  her  lap,  but  an  ex- 
pression of  pain  played  about  her  lips  like  a  smile,  and 
in  her  eye  there  was  no  tear.  But  life  now  seemed 
spread  out  before  her  friend  like  an  indistinct  dissolving 
kingdom  of  shadows,  full  of  hollow,  sunken  mine-shafts, 
—  full  of  mists,  like  spirits  of  the  mountains,  —  and  with 
one  sole  opening,  and  that  so  narrow  and  so  distant,  to  let 
him  forth  into  the  light,  the  heavens,  the  free  air,  the 
spring,  and  the  bright  day.  His  friend  was  reposing  in 
the  white  crystal  radiance,  like  an  angel  on  the  grave  of 
an  infant  


CHAPTER  XIV. 


Suddenly  the  tones  of  Henry's  music  burst  upon 
them,  like  church-bells  during  a  storm ;  and  the  two 
stunned  souls  were  agitated  as  by  an  impending  tem- 
pest, and  their  hearts  were  carried  away  and  dissolved  in 
the  warm  stream  of  melody.  Natalie  now  nodded  her 
bead,  as  if  she  had  confirmed  a  resolution :  she  arose  and 
stepped  forth,  like  a  transfigured  being,  from  the  green 
ilower-grown  grave  ;  and,  stretching  out  her  arms,  she 
walked  towards  him.  Tears  chased  each  other  down 
her  blushing  face ;  but  her  heart  was  yet  speechless. 
Sinking  under  the  great  world  in  her  soul,  she  could 
totter  no  further ;  and  he  flew  to  meet  her.  Weeping 
more  violently,  she  held  him  away  from  her,  that  she 
might  first  speak  ;  but  after  the  words,  "  First  and  last 
friend,  — for  the  first  and  last  time  ! "  she  became  breath- 
less and  mute,  and,  overburdened  with  sorrow,  sunk  into 
his  arms,  on  his  lips,  on  his  bosom. 

"  No,  no  !  "  she  stammered  out.  "  O  God  !  give  me 
but  words  to  speak.  Firmian,  my  Firmian,  take  all  my 
joy  —  all  my  earthly  joys  —  all  I  have;  but  never,  I 
adjure  thee,  by  all  that  is  most  sacred,  never  look  upon 
me,  or  see  me  again  upon  this  earth  "  ;#  and  she  added, 
gently,  "  sivear  that  to  me  now  !  " 

She  lifted  up  her  head ;  and  the  tones  passed  like 
speaking  sorrows  between  the  two  ;  and  she  looked  at 
him  fixedly  ;  and  the  pale,  care-worn  face  of  her  friend 
agonized  her  wounded  heart ;  and  she  repeated  the  re- 
quest, with  an  eye  expressive  of  anguish,  "  Only  swear  !  " 

"  Thou  noble,  glorious  soul ! "  answered  he,  in  a 
trembling  voice,  "  Yes,  I  swear  to  thee,  I  will  see  thee 
no  more  !  " 

Mute  and  motionless,  as  if  struck  by  death,  she  fell 

VOL.  II.  8 


170    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

upon  his  bosom  with  drooping  head ;  and  once  again  he 
said,  as  if  dying,  "  I  will  see  thee  no  more ! " 

Then,  beaming  like  an  angel,  she  raised  her  counte- 
nance, pale  from  exhaustion,  to  his,  and  said,  "It  is 
now  past ;  receive  the  death-kiss,  and  say  not  another 
word." 

He  did  so  ;  and  she  disengaged  herself  gently  from 
his  arms.  But  as  she  turned  away,  she  gave  him  the 
green  rose-bud  with  its  soft  thorns,  and  said,  "  Think 
of  to-day  !"  She  walked  away,  resolved,  but  trembling, 
and  was  soon  lost  in  the  dark  green  alleys,  which  were 
traversed  but  by  few  beams  of  light,  and  did  not  again 
turn  round. 

And  the  end  of  this  night  every  soul  who  has  loved 
will  picture  to  himself,  without  the  help  of  my  words. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Rosa  von  Meyern.  —  After-Tones  and  After-Pains  of  the 
Loveliest  Night.  —  Letters  of  Natalie  and  Firmian.  — 
Leibgeber's  Table-Talk. 

F  in  a  moist,  warm,  starry  spring  night,  the 
broad  roof  of  earth  were  to  be  removed  from 
above  the  heads  of  the  workmen  in  a  salt- 
mine, and  they  were  thus  to  be  suddenly 
transported  from  their  subterranean  stillness  into  the  dark, 
expanded  dormitory  of  Nature,  among  the  breezes,  and 
odors,  and  sounds  of  spring,  they  would  be  in  a  position 
similar  to  that  of  Firmian,  whose  hitherto  reserved,  tran- 
quil, serene  spirit  the  preceding  night  had  all  at  once  vio- 
lently riven,  and  darkened  by  new  sorrows,  new  joys,  and 
a  new  world.  Henry  maintained  a  very  speaking  silence 
on  the  subject  of  this  night ;  but  Firmian,  on  the  contrary, 
betrayed  himself  by  a  silent  hunting  after  conversation. 
Let  him  fold  as  he  would  the  wings  which  had  yester- 
day, for  the  first  time,  expanded  themselves  moist  out  of 
tu  hrysalis-case,  they  yet  were  longer  than  their  wing- 
shells.  At  last  it  grew  tiresome  and  sultry  to  Leibgeber. 
Yesterday,  already,  they  had  gone  to  Baireuth  and  to  bed 
in  silence,  and  it  fatigued  him  to  think  of  all  the  half- 
tints  and  half-tones  which  had  first  to  be  laid  on  before 
any  bold,  broad  strokes  could  be  made  on  the  picture  of 


172     FLOWER,  FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


the  night.  There  is,  perhaps,  nothing  more  to  be  lament- 
ed than  that  we  have  not  all,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
the  whooping-cough,  or  Werter's  sorrows,  or  twenty-one 
years  or  sixty-one  years  of  age,  or  hypochondriacal  at- 
tacks, or  honeymoons,  or  mock-plays  ;  for  how  clearly 
we  should  then  see  our  own  condition  reflected  in  thaT 
of  others,  and  bear  it  as  choristers  of  the  same  joy,  or 
sorrow,  or*cough-tutti,  and  pardon  in  another  everything 
wherein  he  resembled  ourselves.  Now,  on  the  contrary, 
when  one  coughs  to-day,  another  to-morrow  (always  ex- 
cepting the  simultaneous  social  coughing-after  the  chancel- 
hymn  in  the  Swiss  churches),  when  one  takes  his  dancing- 
lesson,  whilst  another  is  kneeling  at  conventicles, — 
when  the  little  girl  of  one  father  is  hanging  over  the 
baptismal  font,  while  at  the  same  minute  the  boy  of 
another  is  suspended  by  ropes  above  the  small  grave,  — 
now,  when  Destiny,  to  the  key-note  of  our  own  hearts, 
strikes  chords  of  a  different  key  in  the  hearts  of  those 
around  us,  or  at  least  extreme  sixths,  major  seventh-, 
minor  seconds,  —  in  this  general  absence  of  unison  and 
harmony,  nothing  better  is  to  be  expected  than  a  screech- 
ing cut-charivari,  and  nothing  to  be  hoped  for  but  a  little 
arpeggio,  if  not  melody. 

In  order  to  get  a  handle  for  talk,  or  by  way  of  a 
pump-handle  to  force  three  drops  out  of  his  heart,  Leib- 
geber  seized  Firmian's  hand,  and  pressed  it  with  all  i'~ 
Angers  gently  and  warmly.  He  asked  him  indifferent 
questions  concerning  their  walks  and  excursions  for  the 
day;  but  he  had  not  foreseen  that  the  pressure  of  the 
hand  would  but  involve  him  in  deeper  embarrassment, 
since  it  might  now  be  fairly  exacted  of  him  that  he 
should  humor  the  hand  as  well  as  the  tongue ;  for  he 


CHAPTER  XV. 


173 


could  not  cast  off  the  hand  of  another  all  at  once,  but 
was  obliged  to  let  it  fall  by  a  gradual  diminuendo  of 
pressure.  To  pay  so  much  attention  to  feelings  made 
him  blush  with  shame,  and  (mite  maddened  him,  nay, 
he  would  have  thrown  my  description  into  the  fire.  I 
have  been  told  that  he  coufd  not  utter  the  word  "  heart  " 
even  in  the  society  of  women,  who  have  it  always  on 
tln-ir  tongues,  like  an  ascending  globulus  hystericus. 
"  It  is,"  he  said,  "  the  spout  and  corkscrew  of  their 
hearts  itself ;  it  is  the  ball  on  the  fencing-foil  of  their 
Ian-  ;  and  for  me  it  is  a  ball  of  poison,  a  ball  of  pitch  for 
the  Bel  at  Babel." 

His  hand  all  at  once  escaped  from  the  dear  personal 
arrest.  Taking  up  his  hat  and  stick,  he  exclaimed,  "  I 
see  you  are  as  stupid  as  I  am.  Instanter  —  instantius  — 
Instantissime.  In  three  words,  have  you  told  her  about 
the  widow's  pension  or  not  ?  Yes,  or  no ;  I  am  going  out 
directly." 

Siebenkäs  more  rapidly  still  poured  out  all  his  infor- 
mation at  once.  "  She  will  certainly  have  it.  I  neither 
have  said,  nor  can  say  anything  to  her.  You  can  say  it 
easily,  and  must.  I  shall  go  no  more  to  Fantaisie.  In 
the  afternoon,  Henry,  we  will  thoroughly  enjoy  our- 
ßclves.  The  music  of  our  life  shall  be  a  sounding  one. 
On  our  harps  are  yet  all  the  loud  pedals  for  tones  of 
joy,  and  we  have  but  to  tread  on  them." 

Henry  recovered  himself,  and  said,  as  he  went  away, 
"  In  the  human  instrument  the  Cremona  strings  are 
twisted  out  of  living  entrails,  and  the  breast  is  only  the 
sounding-board,  and  the  head  nothing  but  the  damper- 
pedal." 

The  solitude  lay  around  our  friend  like  a  beautiful 


174    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


country.  All  the  wandering  echoes  could  reach  him  from 
afar  ;  and  upon  the  tissue,  woven  in  twelve  hours,  which 
was  spread  before  the  loveliest  historical  picture  of  his 
life,  he  could  tremblingly  make  a  chalk  copy  of  the  pic- 
ture, and  copy  it  again  and  again  a  thousand  times. 
But  he  dared  not  venture  to  revisit  the  beautiful,  in- 
creasingly blooming  Fantaisie,  lest  he  should  be  the 
means  of  excluding  Natalie  from  this  valley  of  flowers 
by  a  living  hedge.  He  had  to  pay  for  his  enjoyment 
by  self-denial. 

The  charms  of  the  town  and  of  its  environs  preserved 
their  bright-colored  shell,  and  lost  their  sweet  kernel. 
Everything  to  him  was  like  a  piece  of  confectionery, 
the  ground  of  which,  in  former  days,  used  to  be  strewn 
over  with  powdered  sugar  of  different  hues,  but  is  now 
only  grounded  with  colored  sand,  more  fitted  for  inlaying 
than  for  eating.  All  his  hopes,  all  the  blossoms  and  fruit 
of  his  life,  now  grew  and  ripened  beneath  the  earth,  like 
our  higher  ones,  and  those  of  the  subterranean  chick- 
pea.* I  meaiij  in  the  mock  grave,  into  which  he  was 
about  to  descend.  How  little  did  he  possess,  and  yet  how 
much  !  His  foot  rested  upon  withered  prickly  rose-trees  ; 
around  the  elysian  fields  of  his  futurity  his  eye  beheld 
thorny  bushes,  brambles,  and  a  rampart  formed  by  his 
own  grave.  The  whole  of  his  Leipsic  valley  of  roses 
was  reduced  to  the  little  green  rose-tree,  which,  with  its 
unopened  blossoms,  had  been  transplanted  from  Natalie's 
heart  into  his  own.  And  yet  how  much  he  possessed  ! 
lie  had  received  from  Natalie  a  "  forget-me-not "  for  the 

*  The  chick-pea,  Platt-erbse,  has  indeed  some  blossoms  and  fruit- 
above  the  earth,  but  the  most  of  them  beneath  it,  though  white  ones. 
—  Linnaius's  Treatise  on  the  Inhabited  Earth.  ! 


CHAPTER  XV. 


whole  of  his  life,  —  the  silken  ones  she  had  given  him 
were  but  the  bark  of  the  eternally  blooming  ones,  —  a 
spring-time  of  the  soul,  which,  after  so  many  springs,  he 
at  length  enjoyed ;  to  be  so  loved,  namely,  by  a  woman, 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  as  dreams  and  poets  had  a 
hundred  times  pictured  to  him  in  the  lot  of  others ;  sud- 
denly to  step  forth  from  the  old  paper  lumber-chamber  of 
deeds  and  books  into  the  fresh  green  flower-spangled 
world  of  love ;  for  the  first  time  not  only  to  be  the 
object  of  such  love,  but  to  carry  away  with  him  such  a 
parting  kiss,  like  a  sun,  to  brighten  and  warm  his  whole 
future  life.  This  was  bliss  to  one  who  had  borne  the  cross 
in  the  past !  Besides,  he  was  quite  at  liberty  to  abandon 
himself  to  the  beautiful  waves  of  this  river  of  paradise, 
and  allow  himself  to  be  carried  by  them  whithersoever 
they  pleased,  since  he  could  never  possess  his  Natalie,  nor 
even  see  her  again.  In  Lenette  he  had  loved  no  Natalie, 
as  in  the  latter  no  Lenette.  His  matrimonial  love  was  a 
prose  summer-day  of  harvest  and  of  sultriness,  and  the 
present  was  a  poetical  spring-night,  full  of  blossoms  and 
stars,  and  his  new  world  resembled  the  name  of  the  place 
of  its  creation,  Fantaisie.  He  did  not  conceal  from  him- 
self (since  he  had  resolved  to  die  before  Natalie)  that  in 
her  he  loved  only  a  departed  spirit,  as  a  departed  spirit 
himself ;  or  rather,  in  his  living  character,  he  loved  her 
as  a  transfigured  being,  who  for  him  was  gone  forever  ; 
and  he  asked  himself  openly  the  question,  whether  he 
might  not  love  this  Natalie,  who  now  belonged  to  the 
gast,  as  well  and  as  warmly  as  any  others  who  had  long 
ago  flown  away  into  a  still  more  distant  past,  —  the 
Heloise  of  an  Abelard,  or  St.  Preux,  for  instance,  or  a 
poet's  Laura,  or  Werter's  Lotte,  for  whom  he  did  not 
even  die  in  so  serious  a  sense  as  Werter. 


176    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

All  he  could  say  to  his  friend  Leibgeber,  after  bis 
best  endeavors,  was  this :  "  You  must  have  been  very 
much  loved  by  her,  by  this  rare  being ;  for  I  can 
only  ascribe  her  great  goodness  to  me  to  my  resemblance 
to  you ;  for  in  all  other  respects  I  am  so  unlike  any  one, 
and  I  was  never  favored  by  women." 

Leibgeber,  and  he  himself  immediately  afterwards; 
smiled  at  the  almost  silly  remark ;  but  what  lover, 
during  his  month  of  May,  is  not  a  real  good  living 
sheep  ? 

Leibgeber  soon  returned  to  the  hotel  with  the  news 
that  he  had  seen  the  English  lady  drive  to  Fantaisie. 
Firmian  was  very  glad  of  it,  as  it  made  it  easier  for  him 
to  keep  his  resolution  of  excluding  himself  from  the 
whole  district  of  pleasure ;  for  she  was  the  daughter  of 
the  Count  of  Vaduz,  and  therefore  the  Advocate  of  the 
Poor  must  not  now  be  seen  by  her,  as  he  was  to  pass 
afterwards  for  Leibgeber. 

But  Henry  botanized  at  all  hours  of  the  day  on  the 
flowery  slopes  of  Fantaisie,  less  with  the  view  of  finding 
flowers  with  his  botanical  scrutinizing  glasses  (his  eyes), 
than  to  find  and  question  the  flower-goddess  ;  but  there 
was  no  appearance  of  a  divinity.  Alas !  the  afflicted 
Natalie  had  so  many  reasons  for  absenting  herself  from 
the  ruins  of  her  most  beautiful  hours,  and  shunning  the 
.place  of  a  burnt-out  fire,  overgrown  though  it  was  with 
flowers,  where  she  might  be  met  by  one  whom  she  had 
resolved  never  to  see  again. 

Some  clays  afterwards,  the  Vernier  Rosa  von  Meyern 
honored  the  company  at  the  table  of  the  Sun  with  his 
presence.  If  the  author's  calculation  of  time  does  not 
quite  deceive  him,  he  himself  dined  there  on  the  same 


CHAPTER  XV. 


177 


dar  ;  but  I  have  only  a  dim  recollection  of  the  two  Ad- 
vocates, and  none  at  all  of  the  Venner,  because  holi- 
day hares  of  his  species  are  every-day  cattle,  and  entire 
game-preserves  and  menageries  full  of  them  are  at  all 
times  to  be  had.  I  have  more  than  once  stumbled  upon 
th<j  living  originals  of  persons  whom  I  have  afterwards 
modelled  from  head  to  foot,  and  carried  about  with  me 
in  my  biographical  cabinet  of  wax-figures  ;  but  I  wish 
I  could  always  know  beforehand  which  of  the  persons 
in  w  hose  company  I  happened  to  be  driving  or  dining 
I  should  afterwards  have  to  copy,  as  it  would  enhance 
the  beauty  of  my  biographical  manufacture.  I  candidly 
confess,  I  should  then  be  able  to  collect  and  store  up  in 
my  portfolio  a  thousand  little  personalities  ;  but,  as  it  is, 
in  the  absence  of  all  documents,  I  am  sometimes  obliged 
to  invent  the  less  important  particulars,  as,  for  instance, 
whether  an  event  took  place  at  six  or  seven  o'clock.  It 
is  therefore  morally  certain,  that  if,  on  the  same  morn- 
ing, three*  other  authors  had  sat  down  with  myself  to 
give  the  married  life  of  .Siebenkäs  to  the  world  from  the 
same  historical  sources,  with  all  our  love  of  truth,  we 
four  should  have  produced  four  as  different  family  his- 
tories as  those  handed  down  to  us  by  the  four  Evan- 
gelists ;  so  that  our  tetrachord  could  only  be  brought 
to  agree  by  a  harmony  of  the  four  Evangelists,  as  by  a 
tuning-key. 

As  I  have  already  said,  Meyern  dined  at  the  Sun. 
He  told  the  Advocate  of  the  Poor,  in  a  tone  of  triumph 
which  had  somewhat  the  appearance  of  a  threat,  that  he 
was  going  back  to-morrow  to  the  imperial  market-town. 
The  vanity  he  displayed  was  greater  than  ever.  He  had 
probably  promised  his  hand  in  marriage  to  fifty  ladies 

VOL.  II.  L 


178     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


of  Baireuth,  as  if  he  were  the  giant  Briareus,  with  fifty 
ring-fingers  on  his  hundred  hands.  He  was  as  greedy 
of  young  girls  as  cats  are  of  marum-verum ;  wherefore 
both  the  flowers  and  the  herb  have  to  be  protected 
by  their  possessors  with  a  wire  grating.  When  such 
poachers,  who  are  always  hunting  and  coursing,  are 
chained  alive  by  clergymen,  with  thick  marriage-rings, 
to  some  wild  animal  that  runs  with  them  through  every 
thicket,  until  they  bleed  to  death,  benevolent  weekly 
papers  affirm  that  the  punishment  is  too  severe.  Un- 
doubtedly it  is  for  the  innocent  —  wild  animal. 

The  next  day  Rosa  really  sent  to  inquire  if  the  Ad- 
vocate had  any  message  to  send  to  his  wife,  as  he  was 
about  to  go  to  her. 

Natalie  remained  invisible.  All  that  Firmian  saw  of 
her  was  a  letter  to  her  address,  which  was  shaken  out 
of  the  post-bag  on  one  of  his  daily  visits  to  the  post- 
office,  to  ask  if  there  was  a  letter  from  his  wife.  Le- 
nette  would  probably  not  require  more  houri  to  write 
a  letter  than  Isocrates  demanded  years  to  compose  his 
panegyric  of  the  Athenians,  —  not  more,  I  say,  but  ex- 
actly ten.  The  letter  to  Natalie,  as  the  handwriting  and 
seal  betrayed,  was  from  the  (step-) father  of  his  country, 
Von  Blaise. 

"  Thou  good  girl,"  thought  Firmian,  "  how  he  will 
pass  the  burning-glass,  cut  from  the  ice  of  his  heart, 
over  every  wound  of  thy  soul !  How  many  hidden 
tears  thou  wilt  shed,  which  no  one  will  mark  !  and 
thou  hast  no  hand  to  dry  them  and  cover  them  but  thine 
own ! " 

One  blue  afternoon  he  proceeded  alone  to  the  only 
pleasure-garden  which  was  not  barred  against  him,  to 


CHAPTER  XV. 


179 


"  Ermitage."  lie  was  everywhere  met  by  recollections, 
but  by  sadly  sweet  ones  only ;  everywhere  he  had  lost 
or  resigned  life  and  heart,  and,  in  accordance  with  its 
name,  had  made  himself  the  hermit  of  the  Hermitage. 
Could  he  ever  forget  the  great  dark  spot,  where,  in  pres- 
ence of  his  kneeling  friend  and  the  setting  sun,  he  had 
sworn  to  die,  and  to  separate  himself  forever  from  the 
world  of  his  wife  and  his  acquaintances? 

He  left  the  pleasure-grounds,  his  face  directed  to- 
wards the  setting  sun,  which,  with  its  almost  horizontal 
beams,  closed  in  the  prospect,  and  now  passed  far  be- 
yond the  town  in  an  arch,  ever  more  towards  the  west, 
and  the  road  to  Fantaisie.  His  heart  was  touched  as 
he  gazed  after  the  mildly  flaming  star  that,  crumbling 
into  glowing  cloud-embers,  seemed  to  be  falling  down 
into  yonder  distance,  where  his  orphaned  Lenette  stood 
with  her  face  suffused  with  evening  red  in  the  silent 
chamber. 

"  Ah,  good  Lenette,"  exclaimed  a  voice  within  him, 
"  why  can  I  not  now,  in  this  Eden,  fold  thee  in  bliss 
to  this  full,  softened  bosom  ?  Ah,  here  I  could  forgive 
thee  easier,  here  I  could  love  thee  better  ! "  O  Nature  ! 
so  good,  so  full  of  infinite  love,  it  is  thou  who  changest 
the  distance  of  our  bodies  into  a  propinquity  of  soul ! 
When  we  are  full  of  exceeding  joy  in  distant  places,  it 
is  thou  who  dost  cause  the  dear  images  of  all  those 
whom  we  were  obliged  to  forsake,  to  pass  before  us  like 
sweet  tones  and  bygone  years  of  happiness ;  and  we 
stretch  out  our  arms  towards  the  clouds  that  float  above 
the  mountains,  behind  which  our  dearest  ones  dwell. 
So  doth  the  parted  heart  open  to  the  distant  one,  as 
flowers  which  expand  before  the  sun  still  unfold  their 


l8o     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


blossoms  even  on  the  days  when  clouds  come  between 
them. 

The  radiance  faded !  Only  the  bleeding  traces  of 
the  fallen  sun  lingered  in  the  blue.  The  earth  and  its 
gardens  now  showed  in  greater  relief ;  and  Firmian  all 
at  once  beheld  close  to  him  the  green  Tempe  valley  of 
Fantaisie,  overspread  with  the  rouge  of  red  clouds  and 
the  paint  of  white  blossoms,  trembling  and  rising  like 
vapor  before  him.  But  an  angel  from  heaven  stood 
before  it,  with  the  sword  of  a  flashing  streak  of  cloud, 
and  said,  "  Enter  not  here.  Knowest  thou  the  Paradise 
whence  thou  hast  been  cast  out  ?  " 

Firmian  turned  back,  leaned  in  the  twilight  against 
the  lime-wall  of  the  first  Baireuth  house,  to  clear  away 
all  signs  of  weeping  from  his  eyes,  that  he  might  not 
appear  before  his  friend  with  any  mark  which  might 
require  explanation.  Leibgeber,  however,  was  not  at 
home ;  but  he  found  something  unexpected,  —  a  note 
from  Natalie  to  his  friend.  Ye  who  feel  or  regret  that 
there  is  ever  and  eternally  a  Moses-veil,  an  altar-railing, 
a  prison-grating,  composed  of  body  and  earth,  between 
soul  and  soul,  ye  cannot  condemn  our  poor  lonesome 
friend,  that,  in  his  emotion,  he  pressed  the  cold  leaf  to 
his  burning  lips,  to  his  trembling  heart.  Verily,  to  the 
soul  every  body,  even  the  human  body  itself,  is  but  the 
sacred  symbol  of  an  invisible  spirit ;  and  not  only  the 
letter  you  kiss,  but  also  the  hand  that  wrote  it,  like  the 
mouth,  whose  kiss  deceives  you  with  the  nearness  of  a 
union,  is  nothing  but  the  visible  holy  emblem  of  a  lofty 
beloved  being,  and  the  delusions  are  only  distinguishable 
by  their  sweetness. 

Ceibgeber  arrived,  tore  open  the  note,  and  read 
alo  u  d :  — ■ 


CHAPTER  XV. 


181 


"  To-morrow  at  five  o'clock  your  beautiful  town  will  be 
behind  me.  I  am  going  to  Schraplau.  I  should  not,  my 
dear  friend,  have  left  this  sweet  valley,  without  once  again 
offering  you,  in  person,  the  assurance  of  my  lasting  friend- 
ship, and  expressing  my  thanks  and  wish  for  yours:  I 
would  gladly  have  taken  leave  of  you  in  a  more  living 
manner  than  this ;  but  the  long  parting  from  my  English 
friend  is  not  yet  over,  and  I  have  now  to  resist  her  wishes, 
as  I  had  formerly  to  contend  against  my  own,  in  order  to 
go  and  bury  myself  in  my  homely  solitude,  or  rather  flee 
thither.  The  beautiful  spring  has  brought  me  both  joy 
and  sorrow ;  yet  my  heart,  like  Cranmer's,  if  I  may  be 
allowed  so  bold  a  comparison,  remains  alone  unconsumed 
amid  the  ashes  of  the  funereal  pile,  unchanged  for  my 
beloved  ones. 

"  May  you  be  happy !  happier  than  I,  a  woman,  ever 
can  be.  Destiny  cannot  take  much  away  from  you  ;  no, 
nor  even  give  you  much ;  for  you,  bright  eternal  rainbows 
rest  on  every  waterfall ;  but  it  is  long  ere  the  rain-clouds 
of  the  female  heart,  and  not  until  they  have  shed  many 
drops,  become  tinged  with  the  melancholy  serene  bow 
wherewith  memory  illumines  them.  Your  friend,  no 
doubt,  is  still  with  you.  Press  him  warmly  to  your  heart, 
and  tell  him  that  all  that  yours  desires  for  him,  and  gives 
him,  mine  wishes  for  him  too,  and  never  will  he,  or  his 
dear  friend,  be  forgotten  by  me.    Ever  your 

«  Natalie." 

During  the  reading  of  this  letter,  Firmian  leaned 
against,  the  window-sill,  and  turned  his  face,  overflowing 
with  tears,  towards  the  evening  sky.  With  the  delicacy 
of  friendship  Henry  anticipated  his  reply,  and  said,  look- 
ing at  him :  — 


i82    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

"  Yes,  this  Natalie  is  good,  and  a  thousand  times  better 
than  a  thousand  others  ;  but  I  will  be  broken  on  the 
wheels  of  her  own  carriage,  if  I  don't  lie  in  wait  for  her 
to-morrow,  at  four  o'clock,  and  plant  myself  close  beside 
her.  Verily,  I  must  win  and  fill  her  ears,  or  mine  are 
longer  than  an  elephant's,  who  uses  them  as  fly-flaps." 

"  Do  so,  dear  Henry,"  said  Firmian,  in  the  most  cheer- 
ful voice  that  could  come  from  his  compressed  throat ;  "  I 
will  give  you  three  lines  to  console  myself  a  little  for  not 
seeing  her  again." 

There  is  a  lyric  intoxication  of  the  heart  in  which  one 
should  write  no  letters,  because  fifty  years  afterwards 
people  may  happen  to  stumble  upon  them,  who  have 
neither  heart  nor  intoxication.  Firmian  wrote  neverthe- 
less, and  did  not  seal,  and  Leibgeber  did  not  read. 

"  I  also  say  to  you,  '  Farewell ! '  but  I  cannot  say, 
'  Forget  me  not ! '  0,  forget  me  !  Leave  to  me  alone 
the  forget-me-not  you  have  given  me.  The  heaven  is 
past,  but  not  the  dying !  Mine  is  soon  to  come,  and  on 
this  account  only,  I,  and  more  earnestly  still,  my  Leibge- 
ber,  have  a  request  to  make  you  ;  but  so  strange  a  one ! 
Natalie,  refuse  it  not.  Your  soul  is  far  superior  to  those 
female  souls  who  are  terrified  and  confounded  by  every- 
thing that  is  singular.  Ton  may  venture  !  you  can  never 
risk  your  great  heart  and  your  happiness.  So  then,  the 
other  evening,  I  spoke  to  you  for  the  last  time,  and 
to-day  I  have  written  for  the  last  time.  But  Eternity 
remains  for  me,  and  for  thee ! 

"  F.  S." 

He  slept  dreamingly  the  whole  night,  that  he  might  be 
Lcibgeber's  awakener.    But  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 


CHAPTER  XV. 


183 


ing  the  latter  already  stood,  in  his  character  of  postman 
and  maitre  des  requetes,  beneath  a  giant  lime-tree,  whose 
hammocks,  filled  with  a  sleeping  world,  were  suspended 
over  the  avenue  through  which  Natalie  had  to  pass.  Fir- 
mian,  in  his  bed,  acted  over  Henry's  part  of  waiting,  and 
kept  saying  to  himself :  "  Now  she  will  be  taking  leave 
of  the  English  lady,  —  now  getting  into  the  carriage,  — 
now  she  will  drive  past  the  tree,  and  he  will  arrest  her 
progress." 

He  went  on  fancying,  until  he  fell  asleep,  and  dreamt, 
and  his  dreams  oppressed  him  by  a  painful  confusion,  and 
a  repeated  refusal  of  his  request.  To  how  many  days  of 
gloom,  both  in  the  physical  and  moral  weather,  does  not 
one  single  starlit  night  give  birth  !  At  last,  he  dreamt 
that  she  stretched  forth  her  hand  to  him  out  of  the  rolling 
carriage,  with  tearful  eyes,  and  with  the  green  rose-bud 
on  her  bosom,  and  said,  gently  :  "  I  tell  you  no  !  Should 
I  then  live  long,  if  you  were  dead  ?  " 

She  pressed  his  hand  so  strongly  that  he  awoke  ;  but 
the  pressure  continued,  and  the  bright  day  and  his  bright 
friend  were  before  him,  who  said  :  *  She  said  '  Yes  ' ;  but 
you  have  slept  soundly." 

He  said,  he  had  almost  missed  her  by  a  hair's-breadth. 
She  had  been  quicker  with  her  dressing  and  departure 
than  others  with  their  undressing  and  arrival.  A  dewy 
rose-twig,  whose  leaves  pricked  more  than  its  thorns,  was 
in  her  bosom,  and  the  long  parting  had  reddened  her 
eyes.  She  received  him  affectionately  and  kindly,  though 
ehe  was  agitated,  and  eager  to  hear  what  he  had  to  say. 
He  first  gave  her  Firmian's  open  letter,  as  his  authority. 
Her  burning  eye  glowed  once  more  with  two  great  drops, 
and  she  asked,  "  What  is  it,  then,  I  am  to  do  ?  " 


184    F LOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


"  Nothing,"  said  Leibgeber,  artfully,  in  a  tone  between 
jest  and  earnest.  "  After  his  death,  you  will  have  noth- 
ing to  do,  but  to  endure  to  be  reminded  of  it  every  year 
by  the  Prussian  Widow's  Provident  Fund  Society,  as  if 
you  were  his  widow." 

"  No,"  she  answered,  dwelling  upon  the  word  in  such  a 
manner  as  requires  a  comma  after  it,  not  a  full  stop. 

He  repeated  his  entreaty,  and  the  reasons  for  it,  and 
added  :  "  Do  it,  if  only  for  my  sake.  I  cannot  bear  that 
he  should  be  disappointed  of  a  hope  or  a  wish.  As  it  is, 
he  is  like  a  dancing  bear,  who  is  forced  by  the  bear- 
driver,  the  state,  to  go  on  dancing  in  winter,  without  win- 
ter's sleep.  I,  on  the  contrary,  seldom  take  my  paws  out 
of  my  mouth,  and  am  continually  sucking  them.  He 
watched  the  whole  night  in  order  to  awake  me,  and  is 
now  at  home  counting  every  minute." 

She  read  the  letter  over  again,  syllable  by  syllable. 
He  did  not  insist  upon  any  decision,  but  spun  another 
subject  of  conversation,  —  about  the  morning,  the  jour- 
ney, and  Schraplau.  The  morning  had  already  raised  its 
pillars  of  fire  behind  Baireuth.  The  town  was  at  hand, 
with  its  more  numerous  columns  of  smoke  ;  and  in  a  few 
minutes  he  would  be  obliged  to  get  out  of  the  carriage. 

"  Farewell,"  said  he,  in  the  gentlest  tone,  with  one 
foot  on  the  step  of  the  carriage  ;  "  may  your  future  be 
like  the  day  around  us,  and  become  ever  brighter.  And 
now,  what  last  word  will  you  give  me  to  carry  to  my 
good,  dear,  beloved  Firmian  ?  "  (I  shall  afterwards  make 
an  observation.) 

She  drew  down  her  travelling-veil,  like  the  curtain  of 
a  concluded  stage-life,  and  said  from  beneath  it,  in  an  in- 
articulate tone  :  "  If  1  must,  I  must  ;  let  it  be  —  this  too  ! 


CHAPTER  XV. 


but  you  give  me  an  additional  sorrow  to  take  with  me,  on 
my  way." 

Here,  however,  he  jumped  down,  and  the  carriage 
rolled  on  with  the  much  impoverished  Natalie  .over  the 
ruins  of  her  days. 

If  he  had  got  a  "  no  "  in  lieu  of  the  forced  "  yes,"  he 
would  have  overtaken  her  again  on  the  other  side  of  the 
town,  and  again  have  got  in  as  a  chance  passenger. 

I  promised  above  to  make  an  observation,  —  it  is  this  : 
that  the  friendship  or  love  a  maiden  feels  for  a  young 
man  grows  perceptibly  to  the  eye  when  nourished  by  the 
friendship  she  observes  to  exist  between  him  and  his 
friends  ;  and,  polypus-like,  it  changes  the  latter  into  its 
own  substance.  Therefore  Leibgeber  had  instinctively 
manifested  his  own  feelings  in  a  warmer  manner  than 
usual.  To  us  men  as  lovers,  on  the  contrary,  such  an 
electric  charging  or  magnetic  arming  of  our  love,  by  the 
friendship  we  perceive  between  our  beloved  and  her  fe- 
male friend,  is  seldom  granted,  "however  much  our  flame 
might  be  increased  by  the  observation.  What  gives  us 
pleasure  is,  to  see  our  beloved  becoming,  on  our  account, 
hard  and  frozen  towards  every  other  human  creature,  and 
presenting  them  with  nothing  but  cups  of  ice  and  cold 
pudding,  in  order  to  brew  the  stronger  love-potion  for  our- 
selves. But  this  method  of  giving  the  heart,  like  wine, 
more  spirit,  strength,  and  fire,  by  letting  it  freeze  round 
the  boiling-point,  may  please  a  blind,  selfish  character, 
but  never  a  bright,  benevolent  one.  At  least,  the  author 
of  the  present  history  confesses,  that  whenever  he  has 
beheld  in  a  mirror,  or  in  water,  the  reflection  of  the  re- 
versed face  of  the  Janus-head  distorted  by  hatred  towards 
the  whole  world,  while  the  face  before  him  was  melting 


186    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

in  love,  he  himself  has  immediately  made  a  few  such  hos- 
tile grimaces  —  to  the  Janus-head.  A  maiden  should 
neither  talk  scandal,  nor  scold,  nor  hate,  so  long,  at  least, 
as  she  is  in  love,  on  account  of  the  contrast.  When  she 
has  become  mother  of  a  household,  with  children,  cows, 
and  maid-servants,  no  reasonable  husband  can  object  to  a 
moderate  degree  of  anger  and  a  humble  share  of  scolding. 

Natalie  had  agreed  to  the  strange  proposition  for  many 
reasons :  firstly,  just  because  it  was  strange  ;  secondly, 
because  the  word  "widow"  seemed  to  her  enthusiastic 
heart  to  weave  a  mourning-band  betwixt  her  and  Firmian, 
which  coiled  charmingly  and  fantastically  about  the  scene 
and  the  oath  on  that  night-separation  ;  thirdly,  because 
to-day  she  had  risen  from  one  strong  emotion  to  another, 
and  now  felt  giddy  on  the  height ;  fourthly,  because  she 
was  boundlessly 'unselfish,  and  consequently  troubled  her- 
self little  about  the  possible  appearance  of  selfishness ; 
and  lastly,  because  in  general  she  concerned  herself  as 
little  about  appearance  and  the  opinion  of  the  world  as  a 
maiden  well  dare. 

On  obtaining  all  his  objects,  Leibgeber  sent  out  a  long, 
joyful,  zodiacal  light ;  and  Siebenkäs  dfd  not  cast  his 
mourning  shade  of  night  across  it,  but  only  middle  tints. 
However,  he  now  found  it  quite  impossible  to  visit  the 
two  pleasure-gardens  of  Baireuth,  —  Ermitage  and  Fan- 
taisie,  —  which  for  him  had  become  Herculaneum  and 
Portici ;  besides,  he  would  be  obliged  to  pass  through  the 
latter  on  his  homeward  journey,  and  exhume  many  things 
that  were  buried  there.  He  did  not  intend  to  delay  his 
departure  long;  for  not  only  had  the  Luna  set,  whieh 
from  her  sky  had  shed  a  fresh  silver  glow  upon  all  the 
white  flowers  and  blossoms  of  spring,  but  his  Leibgeber 


CHAPTER  XV. 


also  was  his  memento  mori,  —  death's-head,  —  which  was 
forever  repeating,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  misunderstood, 
though  without  tongue  and  lips,  "  Remember  that  thou 
must  die  (a  mock  death)  at  Kuhschnappel." 

Leibgeber's  heart  was  on  fire  to  get  away  into  the  far 
distance  ;  and  the  flames  of  his  forest-conflagration  longed 
to  dart  and  play  about,  free  and  unbridled,  on  the  Alps, 
in  islands,  and  in  royal  cities. 

The  deluge  of  deeds  at  Vaduz,  this  paper  state-bed  and 
childbed,  —  lit  de  justice,  —  would  have  become  for  him 
a  heavy,  gloomy  sick-bed,  on  which  the  people  formerly 
smothered  hydrophobia  patients  out  of  compassion.  It  is 
true  that  a  small  town  could  as  little  endure  him  as  he  it ; 
but  still  less  could  it  understand  him :  were  there  not, 
even  in  the  large  town  of  Baireuth,  many  law-officers 
dining  at  the  Sun  (I  have  my  information  from  their  own 
lips),  who  considered  his  table-talk  in  the  twelfth  chapter, 
concerning  the  difficulty  experienced  by  crowned  heads 
in  the  palingenesis  of  hereditary  princes,  as  a  formal 
satire  on  a  certain  living  Margrave  ;  whereas,  in  fact, 
he  never  ridiculed  any  individual,  but  only  mankind  en 
masse  ?  To  be  sure,  he  conducted  himself  with  great 
levity  in  the  open  market-place,  during  the  miserable 
eight  days  he  passed  in  our  town  of  Hof  in  Voigtland! 
Credible  Varisker  (so  the  old  Voigtlanders  were  called 
in  Caesar's  time,  or,  according  to  others,  Narisker)  have 
informed  me,  that  in  the  very  neighborhood  of  the  senate- 
house,  and  in  his  best  clothes,  he  publicly  bought  berga- 
motte  pears,  and  bread  in  a  baker's  shop  near  at  hand ; 
and  there  still  exist  certain  female  Narisker,  who,  having 
watched  him,  are  ready  to  affirm  that  he  consumed  the 
above-mentioned  sacrifice  of  food  out  of  doors  like  a 


1 88    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


prince,  and  while  he  was  walking,  like  a  Roman  army, 
notwithstanding  that  stall-feeding  is  now  generally  recom- 
mended. Others,  who  have  danced  with  him,  can  attest 
that  he  attended  masked  balls  in  his  dressing-gown  and 
nightcap,  and  that  he  had  worn  them  both  in  earnest  all 
the  day  long,  before  he  kept  them  on  in  jest  for  the  even- 
ing. An  intelligent  Narisker,  who  was  gifted  with  a  good 
memory,  not  knowing  that  I  had  the  fellow  under  my  his- 
torical hands,  came  out  with  the  following  free  speeches 
of  Leibgeber :  — 

"  Every  man  is  a  born  pedant.  Few  after  death,  but 
almost  all  men  before  death,  hang  in  cursed  chains ;  there- 
fore, in  most  countries,  a  freeman  means  only  a  jailer  or 
a  hangman.  Folly,  as  such,  was  serious ;  therefore  a  man 
committed  the  least  when  he  was  in  jest.  In  his  opinion, 
the  creative  spirit  which  brooded  on  the  ink  of  colleges 
was  what  many  fathers  of  the  Church  considered  the 
spirit  to  be  which,  according  to  Moses,  brooded  on  the 
waters,  —  wind.  Venerable  councils,  conferences,  deputa- 
tions, sessions,  processions,  &c.  appeared  to  him  not  to- 
tally devoid  of  comic  salt,  he  said,  when  viewed  as  serious 
parodies  of  a  pompous,  empty  gravity;  the  more  espe- 
cially as  in  general  only  one  among  the  company  (or  his 
wife)  really  reported,  voted,  decided,  governed,  while  the 
mystic  corpus  itself  was  merely  appended  to  the  green 
sessions-table  as  a  mock  image,  for  the  joke  of  the  thing; 
even  as  the  flute-player  is  screwed  upon  flute-clocks :  his 
fingers,  indeed,  move  up  and  down  the  short  flute  which 
grows  out  of  his  mouth,  so  that  children  are  out  of  their 
wits  with  astonishment  at  the  talent  of  the  wooden  toy; 
while  every  clockmaker  very  well  knows  that  there  i-  a 
cylinder  inside  which  plays  the  hidden  flutes  with  its  hid- 
den pins." 


CHAPTER  XV. 


"Such  language,"  answered  I,  "betrays  a  very  bold, 
perhaps  ironical,  character." 

It  were  much  to  be  desired  that  every  one  in  this 
resembled  the  author,  who  can  here  challenge  all  the  Na- 
risker  to  bring  forward  a  single  act  or  word  against  him 
which  could  be  termed  satirical,  or  not  exactly  modelled 
according  to  the  hat  or  cap-block  of  a  pays  coutumier. 
He  begs  to  be  contradicted  if  he  utters  an  untruth. 

A  note  was  the  shovel  which,  on  the  following  day, 
cast  the  Advocate  of  the  Poor  out  of  Baireuth ;  that  is, 
a  letter  from  the  Count  of  Vaduz,  expressive  of  friendly 
regret  on  account  of  Leibgeber's  ague  and  tallowy  looks, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  requesting  him  to  enter  earlier  on 
the  government  of  his  bailiwick.  This  little  leaf  attached 
itself  to  Siebenkäs  as  a  wing,  to  hasten  him  towards  his 
mock  cocoon-grave,  in  order  that  he  might  fly  out  of  it  a 
new-born  inspector.  He  turns  back,  and  quits  the  beauti- 
ful town  in  the  next  chapter.  In  the  present  he  is  occu- 
pied in  taking  private  lessons  of  Leibgeber  —  whose  part 
henceforth  is  to  devolve  upon  him  —  in  the  art  of  cutting 
profiles.  The  master-tailor  and  Mentor  of  the  scissors 
did  nothing  in  this  matter  which  deserves  to  be  handed 
down  by  me  to  posterity,  excepting  one  thing,  which  I 
heard  from  the  mouth  of  Mr.  Feldmann,  the  inn-keeper, 
who  was  carving  at  table  at  the  time  it  occurred ;  but  I 
cannot  find  a  word  about  it  in  my  own  documents.  It 
was  nothing  more  than  that  a  stranger  who  was  at  the 
table,  among  the  profiles  of  many  of  the  guests,  also  cut 
out  that  of  the  silhouette  improvisatore,  Leibgeber.  The 
latter,  observing  it,  on  his  side  secretly  cut  out,  underneath 
the  table-cloth,  the  supernumerary  face-copier ;  and  when 
the  stranger  offered  the  one  portrait,  he  stretched  out  the 


190    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


other,  saying,  "ÄI  part";  thus  paying  him  with  the  same 
coin.  Besides  these  shadowed  woodcuts,  the  traveller 
also  composed  different  sorts  of  air  ;  but  he  only  suc- 
ceeded in  the  phlogistic,  which  he  easily  manufactured 
by  means  of  his  tongue,  and  in  which,  like  plants,  he 
prospered  and  became  colored.  It  is  more  inhalable, 
and  better  known  by  the  name  of  wind,  in  order  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  other  uninhalable  phlogistic  gases. 
After  the  phlogistic  wind-manufacturer,  who  lectured  well 
upon  the  other  species  of  gas  from  the  movable  pulpit  of 
his  body,  had  departed  with  his  tailor's  wages,  Henry 
made  the  following  remark  :  — 

"  Thousands  of  persons  should  travel  and  teach  at  the 
same  time.  He  who  limits  himself  to  three  days  may 
safely  deliver  excellent  lectures  on  subjects  which  he 
understands  but  little.  Thus  much  I  already  perceive, 
that  now,  on  all  sides,  there  are  glittering  meteors  revolv- 
ing round  myself  and  others,  who  throw  us  a  flying  light 
upon  electricity,  varieties  of  gases,  magnetism,  —  in  a 
word,  on  physics  in  general ;  however,  that  is  nothing. 
But  may  I  be  choked  with  this  duck's  wing,  if  such  pul- 
pit-travellers arffl  current  teachers  (not  current  scholars) 
might  not  lecture  upon  every  branch  of  human  knowl- 
edge to  great  advantage,  especially  on  the  most  minute. 
Could  not  one  person  travel  and  lecture  upon  the  first 
century  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  or  upon  the  first  mil- 
lenary before  his  birth,  for  it  would  be  no  longer?  I 
mean,  could  he  not  communicate  it  to  the  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen in  a  few  lectures,  —  another  undertaking  the  sec- 
ond, a  third  the  third,  the  eighteenth  our  own  ?  I  can 
picture  to  myself  such  transcendental  travelling  apothe- 
caries' shops  for  the  soul.    For  my  own  part  I  would  not 


CHAPTER 


XV. 


even  stop  here ;  I  would  advertise  myself  as  a  peripatetic 
private  tutor,  and  give  chapters  on  the  minutest  points. 
For  instance,  in  the  electoral  courts  I  would  give  instruc- 
tion upon  the  surrender  of  the  elective  privilege ;  in  old 
principalities,  merely  on  the  princc-iana ;  exegetically,  in 
every  place,  upon  the  first  verse  in  the  first  book  of 
Moses ;  upon  the  sea-serpent,  upon  Satan,  who  may  per- 
haps be  the  creature  himself ;  upon  Hogarth's  tail-piece, 
as  compared  with  some  of  Vandyke's  heads  upon  gold 
and  other  head-pieces  ;  on  the  true  difference  between 
hippocentaurs  and  onocentaurs,  which  best  elucidates  the 
distinction  between  geniuses  and  German  critics  ;  *  upon 
Wolf's  first  paragraph,  or  Putter's  upon  the  funeral  ale 
of  Louis  (XIV.)  the  magnified,  and  the  public  festival 
beneath  his  bier ;  upon  the  academic  license  which  may 
be  allowed  to  a  cursory  professor,  in  addition  to  his  salary, 
of  which  often  the  greatest  is  that  of  shutting  the  door 
of  the  lecture-room ;  in  short,  upon  everything.  Thus, 
and  in  this  manner,  it  appears  to  me,  when  high  circulat- 
ing-schools are  as  common  as  village-schools,  —  when  the 
scholars,  as  they  have  already  begun  to  do,  pass  up  and 
down  between  the  towns  like  living  weaving-shuttles,  and 
everywhere  attach  the  Ariadne  thread,  or  at  least  the 
thread  of  their  discourse,  in  order  to  weave  it  into  some- 
thing, —  in  this  way,  when  every  sun  of  a  professorship 
carries  about  its  own  light,  according  to  the  Ptolemaic 
system,  and  pours  it  upon  the  dark  orbs  around  it,  fixed 
upon  necks,  (which  evidently  is  quite  at  variance  with  the 
Copernican  system,  in  which  the  sun  sits  still  in  its  pulpit 

*  The  resemblance  they  are  said  to  bear  to  the  onocentaurs  probably 
has  reference  to  the  rider  Balaam,  who  wanted  to  pass  an  unfavorable 
judgment  and  could  not. 


192     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


in  the  midst  of  the  travelling  and  circulating  planets  or 
students,)  —  in  this  way,  I  repeat,  one  might  cherish 
some  hopes  that  at  last  something  would  be  made  of  the 
world ;  at  all  events,  a  learned  world.  Philosophers 
would  get  nothing  but  the  philosopher's  stone,  money,  — 
but  fools  would  get  the  philosophers  themselves,  and 
knowledge  of  all  sorts,  and,  what  is  more,  the  restorers 
of  science  would  flourish  ;  there  would  be  no  ground  left 
but  classic  ground,  upon  which  we  should  consequently 
be  obliged  to  plough  and  to  fight.  Every  gallows  hill 
would  be  a  Pindus,  every  prince's  seat  a  Delphic  cave ; 
and  I  should  like  any  one  to  show  me  an  ass  in  the  whole 
German  territory.  Such  would  be  the  consequence  if 
all  the  world  were  to  go  upon  learned  and  teaching  trav- 
els, save  and  except,  indeed,  that  portion  which  must 
necessarily  stay  at  home,  if  there  is  to  be  any  one  to 
listen  and  to  pay,  like  the  point  de  vue,  for  which,  in 
military  reviews,  the  adjutant  is  often  selected." 

All  at  once  he  sprung  up,  and  said,  "  Would  that  I 
could  go  some  day  to  Brückenau ;  *  there,  upon  the  bath- 
ing-tub, should  be  my  professor's  chair,  and  seat  of  the 
Muses.  The  tradesman's  wife,  the  councillor's  lady,  the 
countess  or  her  daughter,  should  lie,  like  one  of  the  crus- 

*  In  page  163  of  the  Pocket-Book  for  Visitors  to  the  Watering- 
Places,  1794,  we  are  informed  that,  while  the  ladies  are  lying  locked 
up  in  their  bathing-pans,  young  gentlemen  sit  on  the  covers  in  order 
to  entertain  them  while  they  are  under  water.  Reason,  indeed,  cun 
have  nothing  to  object  to  it,  as  the  wood  of  the  tub  is  as  thick  as  silk, 
and  since  every  one  must  be  in  a  covering  in  which  she  is  without  a 
covering.  But  sentiment  or  fancy  mav  raise  an  objection,  on  the  same 
grounds  that  a  blanket,  a  quarter  of  an  ell  thick,  would  be  a  less  be- 
coming and  close  dress  for  a  ball-room  than  a  gauze  dress;  if  the  in- 
nocence of  the  imagination  is  not  to  be  spared,  there  is  no  other 
innocence  to  spare,  —  the  senses  can  neither  be  innocent  nor  guilty. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


193 


tacea,  in  her  closed  basin  and  relic-box;  and,  as  out  of 
hex  other  dress,  should  poke  nothing  out  of  it  but  her 
head,  which  it  would  be  my  business  to  educate.  What 
discourses,  like  Antonius  of  Padua,  would  I  not  trium- 
phantly hold  with  the  soft  tench,  or  siren,  though  she  may 
rather  be  likened  to  a  fortress  surrounded  by  a  water- 
dike.  I  would  sit  and  teach  upon  the  wooden  lid  of  her 
glowing  charms,  kept  like  phosphorus  under  water.  But 
what  would  this  be  compared  to  the  good  I  could  do  if  I 
were  to  insert  myself  into  such  a  case  and  lining,  and  play 
in  the  water,  inside,  like  a  water-organ,  and  devote  my 
few  official  talents  to  the  bench  of  scholars  on  my  lid  ? 
It  is  true,  I  should  be  obliged  to  make  my  illustrative 
gesticulations  under  the  warm  water,  since  only  the  head 
with  the  doctor's  hat  would  appear,  like  a  sword's  hilt  out 
of  the  sheath.  However,  I  should  send  forth  out  of  the 
bathing-tub  beautiful  doctrine,  luxuriant  ears  of  rice  grow-  . 
ing  under  water,  and  water-plants,  —  a  philosophic  water- 
system  and  such  like, —  and  dismiss  all  the  ladies,  whom 
even  now  in  fancy  I  see  surrounding  my  Quaker  and  t)i- 
ogenes  tub,  sprinkled  with  the  most  excellent  instruction ! 
By  Heaven !  I  ought  to  hasten  to  Brückenau,  not  so 
much  in  the  character  of  bathing- visitor  as  of  private 
teacher." 


VOL.  11. 


9 


M 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


Departure.  —  Pleasures  op  Travel.  —  Arrival. 

IRMIAN  departed.  He  left  the  hotel,  which 
had  been  for  him  a  Rhenish  Monrepos,  or 
Prussian  Sanssouci,  rather  relftctant  to  ex- 
change handsome  apartments  for.  bare  walls. 
It  had  been  particularly  agreeable  to  one  who  had  never 
before  enjoyed  any  of  the  little  comforts,  the  soft  pad- 
ding, so  to  say,  of  this  hard  life,  —  and  had  never  had 
any  other  Jack  at  his  service  than  the  boot-jack,  —  to  be 
able  so  easily  to  ring  up,  by  means  of  the  bell,  to  the 
stage  of  his  chamber  the  chief  actor,  —  the  waiter  John, 
from  the  scene-story ;  and,  moreover,  with  plate  and 
bottle  in  hand,  which  he  alone  and  the  public  enjoyed, 
while  the  actor  himself  got  nothing.  While  he  was  still 
standing  at  the  door  of  the  hotel,  he  paid  Mr.  Feldmann, 
the  landlord,  a  compliment,  which  he  shall  immediately 
receive  from  me  in  print,  as  soon  as  it  is  out  of  the  press, 
as  a  second  glittering  sign. 

"  Nothing  is  wanting  to  any  of  your  guests,"  he 
said,  "  but  the  most  important  article,  Time.  May  your 
sun  reach  the  sign  of  the  Crab,  and  remain  there." 
Several  of  the  inhabitants  of  Baireuth,  who  happened 
to  be  present  and  overheard  the  compliment,  mistook  it 
for  a  wretched  satire. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


'95 


Henry  accompanied  him  about  thirty  paces  beyond 
the  reformed  church,  as  far  as  the  churchyard,  and  then 
pailcd  with  him  more  easily  than  he  would  have  done 
but  for  the  expectation  of  seeing  him  again  in  a  few 
weeks,  on  his  death-bed.  He  purposely  refrained  from 
accompanying  him  to  Fantaisie,  in  order  that  his  friend 
might  give  himself  up  quite  undisturbed  to  the  echo  of 
enchantment,  which  the  whole  garden  would  send  back 
to  him  from  the  spirit-harmonies  of  that  blissful  evening. 

Firmian  entered  alone  into  the  valley  as  into  a  holy 
mysterious  temple.  Every  bush  seemed  to  him  trans- 
figured by  light,  the  brook  as  if  flowing  from  Arcadia, 
and  the  whole  valley  spread  open  to  him  as  a  trans- 
planted vale  of  Tempe  ;  and  when  he  reached  the  hal- 
lowed spot  where  Natalie  had  said  to  him,  "  Think  of 
this  day ! "  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  the  sun  poured  forth 
a  heavenly  radiance,  —  as  if  he  heard  the  bee-like  murmur 
of  spirit- voices  that  had  passed  away,  —  as  if  he  must 
of  necessity  kneel  down  on  this  spot,  and  press  his 
bosom  on  the  dewy  grass.  Upon  this  trembling  sound- 
ing-board he  went  over  again  the  same  path  he  had 
taken  with  Natalie,  and  one  string  after  the  other,  now 
near  a  rose  espalier,  now  from  a  fountain,  now  on  the 
balcony,  now  in  an  arbor,  gave  again  the  old  tones  that 
had  died  away.  In  his  intoxication  his  bosom  became 
full,  even  to  pain ;  a  moist,  transparent,  radiant  film 
covered  his  eyes,  until  at  length  it  was  condensed  into 
a  great  drop.  The  brightness  of  the  morning  and  the 
dazzling  whiteness  of  the  blossoms  alone  penetrated 
from  the  earth  through  his  tear-filled  eye,  and  the 
flower-woven  veil  of  tears,  into  whose  lily-bloom  the 
soul  sank  down,  overwhelmed   and  slumbering.  It 


196     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

seemed  as  if,  during  the  enjoyment  of  his  Leibgeber's 
company,  he  had  only  felt  his  love  to  Natalie  in  half  its 
force,  so  powerfully  fresh,  and  as  with  the  air  of  heaven 
did  Love  fan  him  in  this  solitude  with  his  ethereal  flames. 
A  youthful  world  blossomed  in  his  heart. 

Suddenly  the  bells  of  Baireuth  broke  in  upon  his 
reveries,  announcing  that  the  hour  of  his  departure  had 
struck,  and  he  was  seized  with  that  feeling  of  anxiety 
with  which,  after  parting,  one  lingers  yet  too  long  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  abandoned  city  of  joy.  He 
went  away. 

What  a  bright  downy  bloom  fell  upon  all  the  mead- 
ows and  mountains  since  he  thought  of  Natalie  and 
the  never-to-be-forgotten  kiss  !  The  green  world  had 
now  a  language  for  him,  —  that  world  which,  on  his 
hitherward  journey,  had  been  but  a  picture  to  him.  He 
carried  about  him  the  whole  day,  in  the  darkest  corner 
of  his  soul,  a  light-attracting  magnet  of  joy ;  and,  in  the 
midst  of  distractions  and  conversation,  he  always  found, 
on  suddenly  retiring  within  himself,  that  he  had  been 
the  whole  time  full  of  happiness. 

How  often  did  he  not  turn  back  to  gaze  on  the 
mountains  of  Baireuth,  behind  which,  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life,  he  had  enjoyed  days  of  youth !  Natalie  re- 
treated behind  him  ever  farther  towards  the  east ;  and 
morning-breezes,  which  had  fluttered  around  the  far- 
away lonely  one,  were  wafted  hither,  and  he  drank 
the  ether-flood  as  though  it  were  the  breath  of  his  be- 
loved. 

The  mountains  declined.  His  paradise  was  sub- 
merged beneath  the  blue  of  heaven.  His  west,  and 
Natalie's  east,  flew  apart  with  double  wings  ever  farther 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


I97 


and  farther  from  each  other.  As  in  bygone  years  of 
youth,  he  hastened,  between  seeing  and  enjoying,  over 
the  flower-strewn  limbs  of  the  outstretched  Spring. 

In  the  evening  he  arrived  at  Thaldorf  on  the  Jaxt, 
where,  on  his  outward  journey,  he  had  so  sorrowfully 
reviewed  his  days,  so  barren  of  love.  He  came  there 
now  with  another  heart,  which  was  full  of  love*  and 
happiness,  and  again  he  wept.  Here,  where,  amid  the 
melting  magic-lights  of  that  former  evening,  he  had 
a-ked  himself,  "  What  woman's  soul  has  ever  loved 
thee  as  the  old  dreams  of  thy  bosom  so  often  pictured 
to  thee  ?  "  and  where  he  had  returned  himself  a  sad 
answer ;  here  he  could  think  of  the  evening  at  Baireuth, 
and  say  to  himself,  "  Yes,  Natalie  would  have  loved 
me  ! "  and  then  the  old  sorrow  rose  again,  but  trans- 
figured, from  the  dead.  He  had  taken  the  oath  to  re- 
main invisible  to  her  on  earth  ;  he  now  drew  near  his 
death,  and  would  never  see  her  again.  She  had  gone 
before  him,  —  died,  so  to  say,  before  him,  —  and  had 
taken  nothing  with  her  into  the  long,  dark  years  of  her 
life  ;  "  and  here  I  weep,  and  look  into  my  life,"  said  he, 
wearied  out ;  and  he  shut  his  eyes  without  drying  them. 

On  the  morrow  another  world  dawned  upon  him,  — 
not  the  better  one,  but  altogether  the  old  one.  As  if 
the  concentric  magic  circles  of  Natalie  and  Leibgeber 
reached  no  farther,  and  could  include  no  more  than  just 
the  little  vale  of  longing  on  the  Jaxt,  every  step  that  he 
now  made  towards  his  home  changed  the  poetry  of  his 
life  into  poetical  prose.  The  frigid  zone  of  his  days  — 
the  imperial  market-town  —  already  lay  nearer  to  him  ; 
the  warm  zone,  in  which  the  faded  leaves  of  his  ephem- 
eral blossoms  of  joy  fluttered  in  the  breeze,  lay  far 


198    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


behind  him.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pictures  of 
his  domestic  life  came  forth  more  and  more  into  the 
light,  forming  a  picture-bible,  while  the  paintings  of  his 
month  of  rapture  receded  into  a  dark  picture-gallery.  I 
ascribe  it  partly  to  the  rainy  weather. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  week,  not  only  the  penitent 
and  the  church-goer,  but  also  the  weather,  changes,  and 
the  heavens  and  man  change  their  shirts  and  clothes. 
It  was  Saturday,  and  cloudy.  In  damp  weather  the 
walls  of  our  brains  are  like  those  of  our  rooms,  where 
the  paper  absorbs  the  moisture,  and  curls  up  into  cloud-, 
until  the  dry  weather  makes  both  tapestries  smooth  again. 
Beneath  a  blue  sky,  I  long  for  the  pinions  of  an  eagle  : 
but  beneath  a  cloudy  one,  I  only  desire  a  goose's  wing 
for  writing.  In  the  former  case,  we  wish  to  go  forth 
into  the  wide  world;  in  the  latter,  into  our  grandfather** 
arm-chair ;  in  short,  eight  clouds,  especially  when  they 
drop,  make  us  domestic,  good  citizens,  and  hungry ;  but 
the  blue  sky  makes  us  thirsty,  and  citizens  of  the  world. 

These  clouds  palisaded  the  Eden  of  Baireuth.  As 
the  drops  fell  faster  and  bigger  on  the  leaves,  he  longed 
to  rest  on  the  conjugal  heart  that  belonged  to  him,  and 
which  he  was  soon  about  to  lose,  and  to  be  in  his  own 
narrow  chamber.  At  last,  when  the  icebergs  of  precip- 
itous clouds  had  melted  into  a  gray  foam,  and  the  set- 
ting sun  was  drawn  out  of  this  hanging-pond  like  a  plug, 
and  it  consequently  poured  down,  appeared  Kuhschnap- 
pel. 

Discordant  contending  feelings  were  trembling  in  Iiis 
bosom.  In  contrast  with  more  liberal  men,  the  narrow 
little-townish  market-place  seemed  to  him  so  crumpled 
up  and    office-like,  so   pompously   still'  and  narro 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


I99 


formal,  so  full  of  troglodytes,  that  he  could  have  felt 
tempted  to  wheel  his  green  trellis-bed  in  broad  daylight 
into  the  market-place,  and  sleep  in  it  beneath  whole  rows 
of  grand  windows,  without  troubling  himself  about  the 
great  and  little  senate  behind  them. 

The  nearer  he  approached  the  stage  of  his  death, 
the  more  difficult  did  this  first  and  last  part  but  one 
appear  to  him.  We  are  bold  and  daring  abroad,  fearful 
at  home.  The  cottage  smoke  and  vapor  also  gnawed 
into  him,  which  in  itself  oppresses  us  all  so  much,  that 
there  is  rarely  any  one  to  be  found  who  can  quite  lift 
his  head  above  the  vapor.  A  confounded  inclination 
towards  stirll-sitting  comfort,  that  is  to  say,  nestles  in  man  : 
like  a  great  dog,  he  lets  himself  be  pricked  and  teased 
a  thousand  times  rather  than  take  the  trouble  to  jump 
up  in  lieu  of  growling.  To  be  sure,  if  he  is  once  on  his 
legs,  he  does  not  easily  lie  down  again.  The  first  heroic 
deed,  or,  according  to  Rousseau,  the  first  earned  dollar, 
costs  more  than  a  thousand  that  follow  after.  On  the 
pillow  of  this  domestic  inclination,  especially  while  he 
was  beneath  the  clouds,  our  Siebenkäs  was  stung  by  the 
prospect  of  the  tedious,  difficult,  dangerous  financial  and 
surgical  operation  of  a  theatrical  death. 

But  the  nearer  he  approached  the  Rabenstein,  the 
*  mouse-tower  of  his  former  confined  life,  the  more  quickly 
and  vividly  did  the  feelings  of  his  former  heart-oppress- 
ing stamping-mills,  and  of  his  future  redemption,  suc- 
ceed one  another  in  his  anxious  bosom.  He  always 
thought  he  would  have  to  fret  and  be  full  of  cares,  as 
before,  because  he  forgot  the  open  heaven  of  his  futurity, 
—just  as  after  a  painful  dream  we  are  still  agitated, 
though  the  dream  be  over. 


200    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

But  when  he  beheld  the  dwelling  of  his  long-silent 
Lenette,  everything  disappeared  from  his  eye  and -his 
heart,  and  nothing  lingered  there  but  love  and  its  warmest 
tear.  His  bosom,  which  every  thought  had  charged  with 
the  sparks  of  love,  had  need  of  the  marriage-bond  as  a 
chain  to  conduct  them  off.  "  O,"  thought  he,  "  am  I 
not,  besides,  to  tear  myself  away  from  her  so  soon,  and 
draw  from  her  eyes  the  tears  of  delusion,  and  give  her  the 
painful  wound  of  mourning  and  of  a  funeral  ?  We  shall 
then  never  see  each  other  again,  —  never,  never  more, 
thou  poor  one ! " 

He  hastened  on  more  speedily,  passed  close  by  the 
window-shutters  of  his  fellow-commander  Merjntzer,  and 
bent  back  his  head  to  look  at  the  windows  above.  The 
latter  was  splitting  wood  for  the  Sunday,  and  Firmian 
made  him  a  sign  not  to  betray  him  by  any  sentinel-cry. 
The  old  co-czar  nodded  in  answer,  with  outstretched 
fingers,  that  Lenette  was  up-stairs  in  her  chamber  alone. 
The  well-known  voices  of  the  house,  the  quarrelsome 
screeching  of  the  bookbinder's  wife,  the  subdued  singing 
of  the  zealous  prayer-utterer  and  curser  Fecht,  met  him, 
like  sweet  fodder,  as  he  sneaked  up  the  stairs.  The 
waning  moon  of  his  movable  pewter  property  shone  on 
him  from  the  kitchen,  gloriously  bright  and  silvery. 
Everything  had  arisen  fresh  scoured  out  of  the  bath  of 
regeneration.  A  copper  fish-kettle,  which,  as  long  as  it 
remained  unmended,  could  not  poison  any  vinegar,  glowed 
upon  him  through  the  smoke  of  the  kitchen-fire,  like  the 
sun  through  a  halo.  He  opened  the  door  of  the  sitting- 
room  gently,  saw  that  no  one  was  in  it,  and  heard  Lenette 
making  the  bed  in  the  chamber.  With  a  hammer-knock- 
ing in  his  bosom,  he  made  a  long  and  gentle  stride  into 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


20I 


the  clean  apartment,  which  had  already  put  on  its  Sunday 
shirt  of  white  sand,  and  on  which  the  bed-making  river- 
goddess  and  water-nymph  had  expended  all  her  water- 
skill  to  make  it  a  finished  work  of  art.  How  peacefully 
and  harmoniously  everything  reposed,  the  one  thing  near 
the  other,  after  the  business  and  bustle  of  the  week !  The 
rain-star  had  risen  over  everything :  his  inkstand  alone 
was  dried  up. 

His  writing-table  was  occupied  by  a  pair  of  large  heads, 
which,  as  cap-blocks,  were  already  decked  in  Sunday- 
caps,  in  order  that,  on  the  morrow,  the  stuff  might  go 
forth  from  these  guardians  of  the  sex  {curatores  sexüs)  to 
the  several  heads  of  the  senators'  wives. 

He  pushed  the  unclosed  bedroom  door  wider  open,  and, 
after  so  long  an  absence,  beheld  his  beloved  wife  standing 
with  her  back  turned  towards  him. 

All  at  once  he  thought  he  heard  the  fulling-mill  steps 
of  the  Schulrath  on  the  stairs ;  and,  in  order  that  he  might 
pass  the  first  minute  on  her  heart,  without  the  witness  of 
a  third  eye,  he  said  gently  twice,  "  Lenette  ! " 

She  bounded  round,  screamed  out,  "  Mercy  on  us ! 
you  ?  "  and  he  was  already  on  her  bosom,  and  rested  on 
her  kiss,  and  said :  — 

"  Good  evening,  good  evening ;  how  are  you  ?  how 
have  you  been  ?  " 

His  lips  stifled  the  words  he  sought  for.  All  at  once 
she  struggled  out  of  his  arms  ;  two  other  arms  seized  him 
hastily,  and  a  bass  voice  exclaimed,  "  We  are  also  here  ! 
Welcome,  Mr.  Advocate  of  the  Poor ;  praise  and  glory 
be  to  God."    It  was  the  Schulrath. 

Poor  feverish  creatures  that  we  are  !    Driven  asunder 

by  our  own  and  others'  infirmities,  and  yet  ever  again 
9# 


202    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


drawn  together  by  an  eternal  longing ;  in  whom  one 
hope  after  the  other  for  another's  love  withers  up,  while 
our  desires  become  nothing  but  remembrances !  Our 
faint  hearts  are  at  least  bright  and  brimful  of  love  in  the 
one  hour  when  we  return  and  meet  again  ;  and  in  the 
other  hour,  when  we  part,  inconsolable  ;  even  as  all  the 
constellations  appear  milder,  larger,  and  more  lovely  at 
their  rising  and  setting  than  when  they  pass  over  our 
heads.  But  on  the  soul  of  him  who  loves  ever  and  is 
never  angry,  these  two  twilight  hours,  ruled  by  the  morn- 
ing-star of  meeting  and  the  vesper-star  of  parting,  fall  too 
sadly,  —  he  looks  on  them  as  two  nights,  and  can  scarcely 
bear  them. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


The  Butterfly  Eosa  in  the  Character  op  Mining-Grub. 
—  Thorn-Crowns  and  Thistle-Heads  of  Jealousy. 

HE  foregoing  chapter  was  short,  like  our  delu- 
sions. Alas,  it  was  also  one,  poor  Firmian ! 
After  the  first  storm  of  mutual  catechising, 
after  the  information  received  and  given,  he 
became  more  and  more  aware  that  Lenette's  invisible 
church,  in  which  Pelzstiefel  dwelt  in  the  character  of  her 
soul's  bridegroom,  was  to  become  a  visible  one.  It  was 
as  if  the  earthquake  of  the  previous  joy  had  quite  rent 
asunder  the  veil  of  the  inmost  sanctuary,  in  which  StiefePs 
head  fluttered  as  cherub.  But,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  am  now 
speaking  incorrectly  ;  for  Lenette  purposely  strove  to 
exhibit  a  particular  partiality  for  the  Schulrath,  who,  in 
the  rapture  it  occasioned  him,  flew  from  Arcadia  to  Ota- 
heite,  thence  to  El  Dorado,  and  thence  again  to  the  Wal- 
halla ;  a  sure  sign  that  his  previous  good  fortune,  during 
Firmian's  absence,  had  not  been  so  great.  The  Schulrath 
related  that  Rosa  had  quarrelled  with  the  Heimlicher ; 
and  that  the  Venner,  whom  he  had  wished  to  make  use 
of  as  a  spinning-machine,  had  turned  himself  into  an 
engine  of  war  against  him.  This  breach  had  been  occa- 
sioned by  the  niece  at  Baireuth,  whose  hand  the  Venner 


204    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


had  refused,  because  he  had  caught  her  kissing  a  gentle- 
man of  that  place. 

Firmian  became  as  red  as  fire,  and  exclaimed :  "  Miser- 
able reptile  !  The  wretched  giddy-pate  has  not  refused 
her,  but  has  been  refused  himself.  Mr.  Schulrath,  do.  you 
become  the  knight  of  the  poor  lady,  and  run  this  monster 
of  a  lie  through  the  body  wherever  you  may  meet  it. 
From  whom  have  you  heard  this  rubbish?" 

Stiefel  pointed  quietly  to  Lenette :  "  From  her." 

Firmian  started :  "  And  from  whom,  then,  have  you 
heard  it?" 

She  answered,  with  a  blush  that  overspread  her  whole 
face  :  "  Mr.  von  Meyern  was  here  himself,  and  related  it 
in  person." 

"  But,"  interrupted  the  Schulrath,  "  I  was  immediately 
called,  and  cleverly  got  rid  of  him." 

Stiefel  then  asked  {pr  the  correct  edition  of  the  affair ; 
and  Firmian  timidly,  and  with  an  unsteady  voice,  gave  a 
favorable  account  of  the  rose-girl ;  a  rose-girl  in  a  three- 
fold sense,  —  on  account  of  the  roses  on  her  cheeks,  her 
victorious  virtue,  and  the  gift  of  the  green  rose-buds. 
But,  for  Lenette's  sake,  he  only  awarded  her  the  -second 
prize,  not  the  gold  medal.  He  was  obliged  to  bind  the 
traitorous  Venner  as  ram  upon  the  altar  of  sacrifice  in 
the  place  of  Natalie,  or  at  least  harness  him  to  her  tri- 
umphal car  as  saddle-horse,  and  relate  undisguisedly  that 
the  marriage  had  been  prevented  by  Leibgeber,  whose 
satirical  sketches  of  Meyern  had  been  the  means  of  draw- 
ing her  back,  as  it  were  by  the  sleeve,  from  the  first  step 
into  the  cave  of  the  Minotaur. 

"  But,"  interposed  Lenette,  without  the  tone  of  interro- 
gation, "  Mr.  Leibgeber  had  it  all  from  you  first." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


205 


«  Yes,"  said  he. 

We  mortals  place  on  monosyllables,  especially  on 
f  yes  "  and  "  no,"  more  accents  than  all  that  the  Chinese 
possess.  In  the  present  case  the  "  yes  "  was  a  quick,  un- 
emphatic,  cold  "  yes  "  ;  for  it  was  meant  to  be  of  no  more 
importance  than  an  "  and." 

She  interrupted  an  astray-going  question  of  the  Schul- 
rath's,  with  a  question  shot  right  into  the  bull's-eye : 
tt  When  had  Firmian  been  with  her?" 

Now  for  the  first  time  the  latter  plainly  observed  with 
his  telescope  of  war  all  sorts  of  hostile  movements  in  her 
heart.  He  made  a  humorous  diversion,  and  said,  "  Mr. 
Schulrath,,  when  did  you  visit  Lenette !  " 

"  Three  times  at  least  in  every  week,  sometimes  oftener, 
and  always  at  this  hour,"  said  he. 

"  I  don't  want  to  be  jealous,"  said  Firmian,  "  but  ob- 
serve, Lenette  is,  because  I  have  been  twice  with  Leib- 
geber  in  Natalie's  company,  once  in  the  afternoon,  and 
once  in  the  evening,  taking  a  walk  in  Fantaisie.  Well, 
Lenette  ?  " 

She  curled  up  her  cherry  hp,  and  her  eye  was  like 
Volta's  electrical  condenser. 

Stiefel  departed,  and  Lenette  sent  after  him  down  the 
stairs,  from  a  face  in  which  two  fires  were  burning,  — 
the  fire  of  anger  and  a  more  lovely  one,  —  a  spark  full  of 
eye-love,  enough  to  have  exploded  the  whole  powder- 
mill  of  a  jealous  man.  The  married  pair  were  scarcely 
up-stairs  in  their  room,  when,  by  way  of  flattering  her,  he 
asked  her,  "  Did  the  confounded  Venner  tease  you  again  ?  " 

Hereupon  all  her  fireworks,  the  scaffolding  of  which 
had  long  appeared  in  her  face,  went  off  cracking  and 
hissing. 


2o6    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

"  O,  of  course  you  can't  endure  him.  You  are  jealous 
of  him,  on  account  of  your  beautiful,  learned  Natalie. 
Do  you  suppose,  then,  I  don't  know  that  you  went  about 
with  one  another  the  whole  night  in  the  wood,  and  that 
you  hugged  and  kissed  one  another  ?  Very  pretty ! 
Fie  !  I  should  not  have  believed  it.  Of  course,  then, 
the  good  Mr.  von  Meyern  was  obliged  to  leave  the  charm- 
ing Natalie,  with  all  her  learning,  in  the  lurch.  Well, 
defend  yourself :  do  !  " 

"  I  would  have  related  the  innocent  point  in  which 
I  am  concerned  in  presence  of  the  Schulrath,"  answered 
Firmian,  gently,  "  had  I  not  already  perceived  that  you 
knew  it.  Do  /  then  take  it  ill  that  he  kissed  you  during 
my  absence  ?  " 

This  inflamed  her  still  more ;  in  the  first  place,  be- 
cause Firmian  did  not  know  it  for  certain,  —  for  true  it 
was ;  and  in  the  second  place,  because  she  thought,  — 
"It  is  very  easy  for  you  to  forgive  now  that  you  love 
another  better  than  me."  But  for  the  very  same  reason, 
because  she  loved  another  better  than  her  husband,  she 
ought  to  have  pardoned  him.  Instead  of  answering  his 
previous  question,  she,  as  usual,  asked  one  herself. 

"  Have  I  given  any  one  silk  forget-me-nots,  as  a 
certain  person  gave  a  certain  person?  Thank  God,  I 
have  mine  safely  redeemed  in  the  drawers." 

Heart  now  struggled  with  heart  within  him.  His 
tender  heart  was  pierced  to  the  core  by  the  uninten- 
tional association  of  such  dissimilar  forget-me-nots.  But 
his  man's  heart  was  roused  to  anger  at  her  hateful  offen- 
sive and  defensive  alliance  with  the  Venner,  who  as 
was  now  evident,  had  sent  the  simple  girl,  whom  Natalie 
had  saved,  into  Fautaisie,  as  a  screen,  behind  which  to 


CHAPTEK  XVII.  207 

conceal  himself  and  his  web  of  revenge.  Siebenkäs, 
in  a  voice  of  wrath,  now  turned  his  seat  of  judgment 
into  a  penitent's  stool  for  the  Venner,  abusing  him  as 
a  canker-fly  of  female  buds,  a  dove-hawk,  a  house- 
breaker of  the  treasures  of  marriage,  and  a  soul-seller 
of  mated  souls  ;  and  declared,  with  the  greatest  zeal,  that 
it  was  not  a  Rosa  who  had  refused  a  Natalie,  but  a  Nata- 
lie a  Rosa ;  and  thereupon  naturally  forbade  his  wife, 
in  a  tone  of  cdmmand,  to  spread  abroad  any  further 
copies  of  the  Venner's  lying  half-romance  :  the  conse- 
quence of  all  which  was,  that  he  transformed  the  poor 
woman,  from  head  to  foot,  into  a  hard,  pungent  radish 

of  Erfurt  

But  let  us  not  allow  our  eyes  to  dwell  too  long  and 
too  condemningly  upon  these  pimples,  or  this  eruptive 
fever,  of  poor  Lenette.  For  my  part,  I  will  leave  her  in 
peace,  and  prefer  attacking  the  whole  sex  at  once.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  I  shall  do  so,  when  I  assert  that  women 
never  paint  with  more  caustic  colors  (so  that  Swift's 
black  art  is  but  a  water-color  art  in  comparison)  than 
when  they  have  to  depict  the  physical  defects  of  other 
women ;  further,  that  the  most  beautiful  face  cracks, 
swells,  and  sharpens  into  an  ugly  one,  when,  instead 
of  sorrowing  over  the  deserter,  it  betrays  indignation 
against  the  female  recruiting-officer.  To  speak  more 
correctly,  every  woman  is  jealous  of  her  whole  sex,  not 
because  her  husband,  but  because  all  other  men  run 
after  it,  and  thus  become  unfaithful  to  her.  Every 
one  therefore  makes  the  same  vow  against  this  vice- 
queen  of  the  earth  which  Hannibal  made  (and  kept  as 
well  as  made)  against  the  kings  of  the  earth,  the  Ro- 
mans.   Consequently  every  woman  possesses  the*  power, 


2o8    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


which  Fordyce  ascribes  to  all  animal  bodies,  of  making 
the  others  cold ;  and,  in  fact,  it  is  natural  that  each  one 
should  wage  war  against  a  race  consisting  entirely  of 
rivals.  Hence,  many  call  themselves  sisters,  or  sisterly- 
united  souls,  —  for  instance,  convents  of  nuns  and  Mora- 
vians, —  because  sisters  being  the  persons  most  disunited 
among  themselves,  this  name  expresses  the  disposition 
they  bear  towards  one  another ;  hence,  too,  it  is  that  the. 
parties  carries  of  Madame  Bouillon  consRt  of  three  men 
and  only  one  woman  ;  and  this  probably  also  induced  St. 
Athanasius,  Basil,  Scotus,  and  other  theologians,  to  pre- 
sume that  all  women,  with  the  exception  of  Mary,  will 
rise  again  on  the  last  day  as  men,  in  order  that  no  anger 
or  envy  may  exist  in  heaven. 

There  is  one  queen  alone  who  is  loved,  nourished,  and 
sought  after  by  many  thousands  of  her  sex,  —  the  queen- 
bee  by  the  working  bees,  who,  according  to  modern  ob- 
servation, are  all  females. 

I  will  conclude  this  chapter  with  a  word  in  favor  of 
Lenette.  The  wicked  enemy  Rosa,  in  order  to  repaj 
like  with  like,  or  with  still  worse,  had  poured  out  whole 
seed-bags  full  of  weeds  into  Lenette's  open  heart,  and 
had  unloaded  before  her,  first,  compliments  and  news 
of  her  husband,  and,  at  last,  all  sorts  of  depreciatory 
innuendos. 

She  had  believed  him  the  more  readily,  because  he 
slandered,  abandoned,  and  sacrificed  a  learned  girl ;  and 
her  spite  against  the  guilty  Siebenkäs  could  not  but  grow 
infinitely,  considering  she  was  obliged  to  wait  so  long 
before  she  could  let  it  loose.  She  also  hated  Natalie  on 
account  of  her  learning,  from  the  want  of  which  she 
herself  Had  lost  so  much.    With  many  other  women,  she 


CHAPTER  XVII.  209 

was  of  opinion  that  in  a  Venus,  the  head  was  not  gen- 
uine ;  as  many  connoisseurs  believe  to  be  the  case  with 
respect  to  the  Venus  de  Medici.  What  made  her  most 
indignant  too  was,  that  Firmian  defended  a  stranger 
more  than  his  wife,  indeed  even  at  his  wife's  expense  ; 
and  that  Natalie,  in  her  pride,  had  woven  a  basket  *  in- 
stead of  a  net  for  so  rich  a  gentleman  as  Meyern  ;  more- 
over, she  was  vexed  that  her  husband  confessed  every- 
thing, because  she  considered  his  openness  nothing  but 
haughty  indifference  to  her  indignation. 

What  did  Firmian  do  ?  he  forgave.  His  two  rea- 
sons for  this  I  approve,  —  Baireuth  and  the  grave.  The 
former  had  separated  him  from  her  for  so  long,  and  the 
latter  was  about  to  part  them  for  ever.  A  third  reason 
might  also  be,  that,  as  regarded  his  love  to  Natalie, 
Lenette  was  not  altogether  in  the  wrong. 


*  Vide  note,  p.  129. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


After-Summer  of  Marriage. — Preparations  for  Dying. 

~LTHOUGH  it  was  Sunday,  and  the  minister 
opened  his  eyes  as  little  as  his  hearers  opened 
theirs,  because,  like  many  clergymen,  he 
preached  with  his  physical  eyes  shut,  my 
hero  nevertheless  obtained  from  him  the  certificate  of 
his  birth,  because  it  was  indispensable  for  the  insurance 
in  the  Brandenberg  Widow's  Provident  Fund  Society. 

Leibgeber  had  undertaken  to  provide  for  the  rest. 
But  enough  of  this  ;  for  I  am  not  fond  of  talking  much 
about  the  affair,  since,  some  years  ago,  long  after  the 
debt  of  Siebenkäs  had  been  repaid  to  the  last  heller,  the 
Imperial  Intelligencer  publicly  accused  me  of  endanger- 
ing morals  and  Widow's  Provident  Fund  Societies,  by 
my  last  volume  of  "  Siebenkäs,"  and  said,  that  he,  the 
Intelligencer,  felt  it  in  consequence  his  duty  to  deal 
severely  with  me,  after  his  manner,  as  I  deserved.  But 
am  I  and  the  Advocate,  then,  one  and  the  same  person  ? 
Is  it  not  known  to  every  one  that,  as  in  my  marriage 
generally,  so  with  regard  to  the  Widow's  Fund  in  par- 
ticular, I  act  very  differently  from  the  Advocate,  and 
that,  up  to  this  day,  I  have  never  died,  either  in  appear- 
ance or  in  earnest,  notwithstanding  that  for  so  many 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


21 1 


years  I  have  paid  a  considerable  sum  into  the  above- 
mentioned  Prussian  Fund  ?  Indeed,  do  I  not  even  in- 
tend (this  I  may  unhesitatingly  assert)  to  pay  the  spe- 
cified sum  into  the  fund  for  many  years  yet  to  come, 
even  though  it  be  to  my  own  loss  ;  so  that  at  my  death 
the  fund  will  have  gained  more  by  me  than  by  any 
other  subscriber  ?  These  are  my  principles  ;  and  for  the 
credit  of  the  Advocate  of  the  Poor  I  gan  say,  that  his 
principles  differ  little,  if  at  all,  from  mine.  His  heart, 
which  in  all  other  respects  was  so  true,  had  succumbed 
in  Baireuth  alone  to  the  friendly  storming  and  impetu- 
osity of  his  Leibgeber,  whose  every  wish  he  fulfilled, 
particularly  as  he  had  given  his  promise.  Leibgeber 
in  that  moment  of  enthusiasm  had  intoxicated  him  with 
his  own  wild  cosmopolitan  spirit,  which,  in  the  unfet- 
tered transmigrations  of  his  everlasting  travels,  led  him 
to  consider  life  too  much  in  the  light  of  a  card'  and 
stage-mirror,  as  a  game  of  chance  and  commerce,  an 
opera  buffa  and  seria  at  one  and  the  same  time  ;  know- 
ing, moreover,  Leibgeber's  contempt  of  money,  and  his 
pecuniary  means,  as  well  as  his  own,  he  consented  to 
act  a  part  in  itself  unjust,  for  which  he  was  punished, 
while  acting  it,  by  sufferings,  which  he  foresaw  as  little 
as  the  sermon  of  reproof  which  was  to  come  out  of 
Gotha. 

And  yet  he  might  consider  himself  fortunate  that 
only  the  Beckerian  Intelligencer  and  not  Lenette  dis- 
covered Natalie's  mock  widowhood.  Heavens !  if  the 
latter,  with  her  silk  forget-me  in  her  hands  (the  not  had 
flown  away),  had  learnt  Firmian's  adoptive  marriage  ! 
However,  I  neither  wish  the  good  woman  to  judge,  nor 
will  I  judge  her  ;  but  I  will  here  ask  all  my  female 


212    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


readers,  and  especially  one  among  them,  two  remarkable 
questions : 

"  Would  you  not  award  my  hero,  from  your  seat  of 
judgment,  for  his  upright  warm  behavior  to  these  two 
women,  if  not  a  chaplet  of  oak-leaves,  yet  of  flowers,  or, 
considering  that  four  female  hands  play  a  duet  sonata  on 
his  heart,  at  least  a  bouquet  for  his  button-hole  ?"  Dear- 
est ladies,  you  cannot  possibly  give  a  better  judgmenl 
than  you  have  just  given,  although  I  am  less  surprised 
than  pleased  at  it.  My  second  question  shall  be  put 
to  you  by  no  one  but  yourselves.  Let  every  one  ask 
herself: 

"  Suppose  you  had  got  this  fourth  volume  in  your 
hands,  and  were  yourself  Lenette,  and  were  consequently 
acquainted  writh  the  smallest  particular;  how  would  the 
conduct  of  your  married  lord  Siebenkäs  please  you  ? 
what  would  you  do  ? " 

I  will  answer  for  you  :  weep,  storm,*  scold,  sulk,  keep 
silence,  break  things,  &c.,  &c. ;  so  terribly  is  the  finest 
moral  feeling  alloyed  by  selfishness,  and  bribed  by  it  to 
give  a  double  judgment  upon  one  and  the  same  cause. 
Whenever  I  am  doubtful  about  the  worth  of  a  character 
or  a  resolution,  I  always  assist  myself  by  picturing  it 
presented  to  me  wet  from  the  press  in  a  novel  or  in  a 
biography  :  if  I  then  still  assert  that  it  is  good,  I  may  be 
sure  that  it  is  so. 

It  is  more  beautiful  that  the  Graces  should  have  dwelt 
in  the  old  Satyrs  and  in  Socrates,  than  that  Satyrs  should 
dwell  in  the  Graces.    The  one  that  took  up  his  abode  in 

*  The  white  blossom  would  weep,  the  red  blossom  storm;  as  the 
pale  moon  foretells  rainy  weather,  the  red  moon  a  tempest  (pallida  Una 
plait,  rubicunda  flat). 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


213 


Lenette  pushed  about  him  with  very  sharp  horns.  Her 
unreturned  anger  now  took  the  form  of  sneering;  for  his 
present  mildness  contrasted  very  suspiciously  with  his 
former  Job-like  disputations,  whence  she  inferred  that  his 
heart  was  completely  hardened.  Formerly,  like  a  sultan, 
he  liked  to  be  served  by  mutes,  until  his  satirical  foetus,  ** 
his  book,  had  been  lifted  into  the  world  by  the  Roonhuy- 
sian  lever  and  the  emperor's-cut  with  the  pen-knife ;  * 
even  as  Zacharias  remained  dumb  until  the  child  ceased 
to  be  so,  and  was  born,  crying  at  the  same  moment  as  the 
old  man. 

Formerly  their  married  life  often  resembled  most  other 
marriages,  in  which  the  wedded  pair  are  like  those  twin 
sisters  f  who  were  connected  together  by  their  backs,  and 
were  always  quarrelling,  but  never  saw  each  other,  and 
continually  turned  towards  opposite  quarters,  until  the 
one  ra^n  away  with  the  other. 

Now,  on  the  contrary,  Firmian  allowed  all  Lenette's 
discordant  tones  to  growl  away  of  themselves,  without 
getting  angry.  Upon  all  her  sharp  corners,  upon  her 
opera  supererogationis  in  washing,  upon  the  water-sprouts 
of  her  tongue  fell  a  mild  light ;  and  the  color  of  the  shad- 
ow which  her  heart,  made  of  dark  earth,  cast,  like  every 
other,  was  very  much  lost  in  the  blue  of  heaven ;  as,  ac- 
cording to  Mariette,  the  shadows  beneath  the  starlight 
become  as  blue  as  the  sky  above  them.  And  did  not  the 
great  blue  starry  heaven  hang  over  his  soul  in  the  form 

*  Alluding,  I  suppose,  to  the  habit  of  Napoleon  cutting  the  table 
with  his  penknife  when  he  was  giving  birth  to  an  idea.  A  table  thus 
cut  is  exhibited  at  Fontainebleau.  —  Tr. 

t  In  the  Gomorner  county.  Windisch,  Geography  of  Hungary. 
Buchanan  mentions  a  similar  twin-bix-th  in  Scotland. 


214    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

of  Death  ?  Every  morning,  every  evening,  he  said  to 
himself,  "  How  much  ought  I  not  to  forgive ;  for  we  shall 
remain  so  short  a  time  together !  "  Every  occasion  of 
exercising  forgiveness  took  from  the  bitterness  of  his  vol- 
untary departure ;  and  as  those  who  are  about  to  take  a 
journey,  or  to  die,  are  ever  ready  to  forgive,  and  still 
more  so  those  who  witness  these  two  events,  so,  during 
the  whole  day,  the  deep  hot-spring  of  love  in  his  bosom 
never  grew  cold.  He  determined  to  traverse  the  short 
dark  alley  of  weeping  willows,  which  led  from  his  house 
to  his  empty  grave  (a  full  one,  alas  !  for  his  love),  leaning 
only  on  the  arms  of  those  dear  to  him,  and  to  rest  awhile 
between  his  friend  and  his  wife,  on  every  moss-grown  seat 
within  it,  on  either  hand  a  beloved  one.  Thus,  as  La- 
vater  observes,  Death  not  only  beautifies  our  lifeless 
forms,  but  the  thought  of  it  gives  a  more  beautiful  ex- 
pression to  the  countenance  even  in  life,  and  new  stj^ngth 
to  the  heart ;  as  rosemary  is  both  placed  as  a  chaplet  on 
the  brows  of  the  dead,  and  gives  life  to  the  fainting  by 
its  vivifying  essence. 

"  I  am  not  at  all  surprised  at  it,"  the  reader  will  here 
say.  "  In  Firmian's  situation  every  one  would  have  felt 
as  he  did,  —  at  least  I  should." 

But,  dear  friend,  are  we  then  not  already  in  his  situa- 
tion ?  Does  the  distance  or  nearness  of  our  eternal  de- 
parture make  any  difference  ?  O,  since  we  only  stand 
here  below  as  delusively  solid  and  red  painted  images 
near  our  niches,  and,  like  the  old  princes,  crumble  into 
dust  and  sink  into  our  sepulchres  when  the  unknown  hand 
shakes  the  mouldering  image,  —  why  then  do  we  not  say, 
like  Firmian,  "  How  much  ought  I  not  to  forgive ;  we 
shall  remain  so  short  a  time  together ! " 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


215 


We  should  spend  four  better  days  of  penitence,  fasting, 
and  prayer  than  the  usual  ones,  if  we  had  annually  to 
endure  four  hard,  hopcjess  clays  of  illness  in  succession  ; 
because  from  the  bed  of  sickness,  that  ice-region  of  life 
near  its  crater,  we  should  look  down  with  elevated  eyes 
upon  the  shrinking  pleasure-gardens  and  groves  of  life ; 
because  there  our  miserable  race-courses  appear  shorter, 
and  only  the  men  upon  them  greater ;  and  because  we 
should  there  love  nothing  but  the  heart,  and  exaggerate 
and  hate  no  other  faults  but  our  own;  and,  lastly,  be- 
cause we  leave  the  sick-bed  with  better  resolutions  than 
we  enter  it,  for  the  first  day  of  convalescence  of  the  over- 
wintered body  is  the  season  of  bloom  of  a  beautiful  soul. 
It  steps,  as  if  transfigured,  out  of  the  cold  rind  of  earth 
into  ,  a  warm  Eden  ;  it  desires  to  draw  everything  to  its 
weak,  heavily  breathing  bosom,  —  men,  and  flowers,  and 
spring-breezes,  and  every  other  bosom  which  had  sighed 
for  it  on  the  sick-bed.  Like  others  after  their  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead,  it  will  love  everything  for  an  eternity, 
and  the  whole  heart  is  a  moist,  warm,  gushing  spring  full 
of  buds,  beneath  a  young  sun. 

How  Firmian  would  have  loved  his  Lenette,  if  she  had 
not  obliged  him  to  forgive  instead  of  caressing  her  !  O, 
she  would  have  rendered  his  sham  death  infinitely  more 
bitter  to  him  had  she  been  to  him  as  she  was  in  the 
honeymoon  !  But  his  former  Eden  now  bore  a  harvest 
of  ripe  "  grains  of  paradise  "  (thus  formerly  were  called 
the  sound  peppercorns).  Lenette  heated  the  purgatory 
of  jealousy,  and  roasted  him  there  ready  for  the  future 
heaven  of  Vaduz.  A  jealous  woman  cannot  be  cured 
either  by  word  or  deed.  She  resembles  the  kettle-drum, 
which  of  all  instruments  is  the  most  difficult  to  tune,  and 


2l6    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


keeps  in  tune  the  shortest  time.  A  warm  glance  full  of 
love  was  a  blister  to  Lenette,  for  thus  he  had  looked  upon 
Natalie ;  if  he  appeared  cheerful,  then  it  was  plain  he 
was  thinking  of  the  past ;  if  he  wore  a  sad  expression,  it 
was  again  the  same  thought,  but  full  of  longing.  Do 
what  he  would,  his  face  was  to  her  an  open  letter,  or 
handbill  of  the  thoughts  that  were  behind  it;  in  short, 
her  husband  altogether  only  served  her  as  good  violin- 
rosin,  with  which  she  made  the  horse-hair  rough,  that 
she  might  scrape  the  viole  d'amour  all  day  long. 

He  was  not  allowed  to  let  fall  many  words  about  Bai- 
reuth,  scarcely  the  name,  for  she  knew  well  enough  what 
he  was  thinking  about.  He  could  not  even  decry  Kuh- 
schnappel  strongly  without  awakening  the  suspicion  that 
he  was  comparing  it  with  Baireuth,  and  that,  for  reasons 
well  known  to  her,  he  preferred  the  latter ;  he  therefore, 
whether  seriously  or  from  indulgence  I  know  not,  con- 
fined his  preference  of  my  present  place  of  residence  to 
the  imperial  market-town  simply  to  the  buildings,  and  did 
not  extend  the  commendation  to  the  inhabitants. 

There  was  one  person,  however,  whom  he  named  and 
praised,  utterly  regardless  of  her  misconstruction,  and  the 
vexation  his  frequent  praise  might  occasion,  —  this  per- 
son was  his  friend  Leibgeber.  But  it  was  precisely  Leib- 
geber  who,  by  exposing  the  character  of  Rosa,  and  by 
aiding  and  abetting  her  husband  in  Fantaisie,  had  In- 
come even  more  intolerable  to  Lenette  than  he  had  for- 
merly been  in  her  room,  with  his  free  and  easy  manners 
and  his  great  dog.  Even  Stiefel,  as  she  knew,  had  sev- 
eral times  felt  himself  obliged  to  condemn  his  offences 
against  decorum. 

"  My  good  Henry  will  now  soon  arrive,  Lenette," 
said  he. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


217 


"  And  his  filthy  beast  along  with  him  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  You  might  well  love  my  friend  a  little  more,"  said 
he ;  "  not  at  all  because  of  his  resemblance  to  me,  but  on 
account  of  his  faithful  friendship.  You  would  then  also 
fiud  less  fault  with  his  dog,  as  you  would  in  my  case,  sup~ 
posing  that  I  kept  one.  He  wants  a  faithful  creature  on 
his  never-ending  journeys,  who  will  accompany  him 
through  good  and  ill  fortune,  through  thick  and  thin, 
as  Saufinder  does ;  and  he  looks  upon  me  as  just  such 
another  faithful  creature,  and  is  right  therefore  in  loving 
so  much.  Besides,"  added  he,  as  many  thoughts 
passed  through  his  mind,  "  the  whole  faithful  comradeship 
will  not  remain  long  at  Kuhschnappel." 

However,  he  could  not  gain  his  suit  for  love  by  any 
love  of  his  own.  I  begin  to  think  that  this  was  quite 
natural,  and  that  Lenette,  by  her  previous  warm  propin- 
quity to  the  Schulrath,  had  been  spoilt,  and  rendered 
susceptible  by  a  temperature  of  love  in-  comparison  with 
which  that  of  her  husband  must  necessarily  seem  like  a 
cold  draught  of  wind.  The  jealousy  of  hatred  acts  like 
the  jealousy  of  love ;  the  cipher  of  nothing  and  the  circle 
of  perfection  have  one  and  the  same  symbol. 

At  last  the  Adv|^te  was  obliged  to  ground  and  pre- 
pare the  way  for  his  apparent  death  by  seeming  to  fall 
ill ;  but  he  deluded  his  conscience  into  regarding  this  wil- 
ful bending  and  sinking  towards  the  grave  as  nothing  yet 
but  an  attempt  to  regain  Lenette's  imbittered  soul.  Thus 
deluding  or  deluded,  man  ever  pictures  his  deceit  to  him- 
self either  as  smaller  than  it  is,  or  as  a  philanthropic 
deception. 

The  Greek  and  Eoman  lawgivers  invented  dreams 
and  prophecies,  in  which  were  contained  the  designs, 

VOL.  II.  10 


2l8    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


and,  at  the  same  time,  the  permission  to  build,  and  the 
materials  of  their  plans.  Alcibiades,  for  instance,  in- 
vented a  prophecy  of  the  conquest  of  Sicily.  Firmian, 
with  suitable  alterations,  imitated  this  custom  in  his 
own  household.  He  often  spoke  of  his  death  in  Stiefels 
preseuce,  for  the  latter  sympathized  more  warmly  in  all 
that  concerned  him,  and  his  feelings  in  consequence  be- 
came Lenette's  ;  he  used  to  say  that  he  would  soon  go 
away  forever,  —  that  he  would  play  at  hide  and  seek 
without  ever  again  being  found  by  a  friendly  eye,  —  that 
he  would  go  behind  the  bed-curtain  of  the  shroud,  and' 
vanish.  He  related  also  a  dream,  which  perhaps  was  not 
even  an  invention : 

"  The  Schulrath  and  Lenette  beheld  in  his  room  a 
scythe  that  moved  backwards  and  forwards  of  itself ;  at 
last  Firmian's  empty  dress  walked  about  the  room  erect. 
They  both  said,  '  He  must  have  on  another.'  Suddenly 
the  churchyard  moved  by  in  the  street  below  with  a 
hillock  that  was  not  yet  green,  and  a  voice  exclaimed, 
*  Seek  him  not  below  ;  it  is  past.'  A  second  softer  voice 
called  out,  '  Rest,  rest,  thou  weary  one  ! '  A  third  said, 
i  Weep  not,  if  thou  lovest  him  ! '  A  fourth  screamed 
in  a  terrific  tone,  4  Jest,  jest,  —  the  }ffe  and  death  of  all 
mankind  ! ' "  Firmian  wept  first,  then  his  friend,  and 
lastly,  with  the  latter,  his  angry  wife. 

But  he  now  longed  impatiently  for  Leibgeber's  hand, 
which  would  conduct  him  better  and  quicker  through 
the  dark  foreground  and  the  close  sultry  fore-hell  of  his 
artificial  death.  His  heart  was  now  too  much  softem  id 
for  it. 

Once,  upon  a  lovely  evening  in  August,  it  was  more 
so  than  usual;  on  his  countenance  hovered  that  trans- 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


219 


figuring  serenity  of  resignation,  of  tearless  emotion,  of 
smiling  mildness,  which  is  seen  when  sorrow  is  rather 
exhausted  than  relieved ;  as  sometimes  on  the  blue 
heaven  falls  the  pale-tinted  shadow  of  the  rainbow. 
He  resolved  to  pay  his  last  parting  visit  to-day  to  the 
much-loved  country. 

To  his  soul,  not  to  his  eye,  a  thin  fog  hung  floating 
over  the  light  landscape,  like  the  soft  yielding  vapor 
thrown  over  their  landscapes  in  lieu  of  a  veil  by  the 
brush  of  Berghem  or  Wouverman.  As  if  to  bid  them 
farewell,  he  visited,  touched,  gazed  upon  every  thick 
shrub,  beneath  which  lie  had  been  used  to  recline  while 
reading ;  every  darker-looking  little  whirlpool,  beneath 
the  bare-washed  tortuous  roots  of  old  trees  ;  every  odor- 
breathing  moss-grown  crag ;  every  step  of  the  ascending 
hill-stairs,  upon  which  he  had  artificially  multiplied  the 
sunrise  and  sunset ;  and  every  spot  where  the  great 
Creation  had  forced  tears  of  enthusiasm  from  his  bosom 
overflowing  with  rapture.  But,  in  the  midst  of  the  high 
standing  corn,  the  oft-repeated  story  of  creation  in  the 
life-teeming  brood-cell  of  Nature,  in  the  seed-nursery 
of  the  ripe  boundless  garden,  a  hollow  broken  voice 
was  heard  above  tne  clear  notes  of  the  drum  in  the 
Alexander's  feast  of  Nature,  asking,  "  What  dead  thing 
wanders  among  my  life,  and  sullies  my  blossoms  ? "  It 
seemed  as  if  a  voice  sung  to  him  from  out  the  deep 
fluah  of  evening  :  "  Wandering  skeleton,  with  the  string- 
instrument  of  nerves  on  thy  bony  hand,  thou  dost  not 
play  thyself ;  the  breath  of  infinite  life  breathes  upon 
the  iEolian  harp,  awakening  its  music,  and  thou  art 
played  upon  !  "  But  the  sad  delusion  soon  faded  away, 
and  he  thought :  "  I  am  played  upon,  and  play  at  the 


220    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


same  time,  —  I  am  thought,  and  I  think  ;  the  green  Dark 
does  not  sustain  my  dryad,  my  spiritus  rector  (the 
spirit),  but  is  itself  sustained  by  the  latter.  The  life  of 
the  body  depends  as  much  on  the  spirit  as  that  of  the 
spirit  on  the  body,  —  everywhere  life  and  power  exist : 
the  grave,  the  decaying  body,  is  a  world  full  of  struggling 
powers.  We  change  the  scenes,  but  never  quit  the 
stage." 

When  he  returned  home  he  found "  the  following  billet 
from  Leibgeber :  — 

"  I  am  on  the  way ;  set  out  on  yours. 

"  L." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


The  Ghost.  —  Going  Home  of  the  Storms  in  August,  or  the 
Last  Quarrel.  —  Clothes  of  the  Children  of  Israel. 

NE  night,  about  eleven  o'clock,  a  noise,  as  if 
a  few  hundredweights  of  Alps  had  fallen  in, 
was  suddenly  heard  in  the  garret.  Lenette 
went  up  stairs  with  Sophy  to  ascertain  if  it 
were  the  Devil,  or  a  cat.  The  women  returned  with 
white  and  disturbed  wintry  faces.  "  Ah,  God  preserve 
us ! "  said  the  landlady ;  "  Mr.  Advocate  is  lying  up- 
stairs stretched  out  on  the  pallet,  like  a  corpse." 

The  living  Advocate,  who  received  the  information, 
was  seated  in  his  room.  He  said  it  was  not  true,  other- 
wise he  also  would  have  heard  the  noise.  From  this 
deafness  all  the  women  now  surmised  what  it  portended, 
namely,  his  death.  The  cobbler  Fecht,  who,  by  right 
of  royal  succession,  was  to-night  the  reigning  watch- 
man, resolved  on  showing  where  his  heart  was,  and 
armed  himself  simply  with  the  watchman's  staff  (that 
was  his  whole  park  of  artillery),  but  in  secret  he  stuck 
a  hymn-book,  bound  in  black,  into  his  pocket,  as  a 
regiment  of  saints,  in  case,  by  any  accident,  the  Devil 
really  happened  to  be  up-stairs.  On  the  way  he  re- 
peated great  part  of  the  evening  blessing,  which  was 


222    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

more  than  could  reasonably  have  been  required  of  him 
this  evening  when  he  was  Watchman-archon,  consider- 
ing that  his  hourly  call  was  but  a  long-drawn-out  even- 
ing prayer,  divided  among  the  streets.  He  was  just 
about  to  march  boldly  up  to  the  pallet-bed,  when,  un- 
fortunately, he  too  saw  the  white-powdered  face  before 
him,  and  behind  the  bed  a  hell-dog  with  eyes  of  fire, 
which  seemed  to  be  grimly  watching  the  corpse.  Sud- 
denly he  stood,  as  if  petrified  into  a  lifeless  sentinel- 
watchman  hewn  out  of  alabaster,  hard-boiled  in  the 
sweat  of  his  terror,  and  held  his  staff  before  him.  He 
foresaw  that  if  he  turned  round  to  jump  down  stairs, 
the  thing  would  gripe  him  from  behind,  saddle  him,  and 
ride  him  down.  Luckily  a  voice  from  below  dropped 
like  a  cordial,  or  water  of  courage,  into  his  heart,  and  he 
presented  his  boar's-spear,  with  the  intention  of  running 
the  apparition  through  the  body,  or  at  least  of  measuring 
its  cubic  contents  with  the  gauge.  But  when,  at  this 
moment,  the  white  object  began  to  raise  itself  slowly 
up,  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  he  had  a  pitch-cap  on  his 
head,  and  some  one  were  wrenching  the  cap,  together 
with  the  hair  within  it,  each  moment  further  off  his 
shoulders,  and  he  could  no  longer  hold  the  eel-spear 
with  both  hands,  not  because  he  let  go  the  handle,  but 
because  the  spear  became  as  heavy  as  if  his  biggest 
journeyman  were  hanging  at  the  other  end  of  it.  He 
laid  down  his  arms,  and,  with  three  touches,  flew  boldly 
over  the  uppermost  octave  of  the  stairs  down  to  the 
counter-bass  touch,  or  step. 

Down  below,  he  swore,  in  presence  of  the  landlord 
and  all  the  lodgers,  that  he  would  fulfil  the  duty  of 
night-watchman  without  a  staff,  for  the  spirit  had  po§- 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


223 


sessed  himself  of  it :  indeed,  he  shivered,  as  if  from  frost, 
every  time  his  eye  wandered  over  the  features  of  the 
Advocate's  face.  Firmian  was  the  only  one  who  volun- 
teered to  fetch  the  lance.  When  he  got  up  stairs,  he 
found,  as  he  had  guessed,  his  friend  Leibgeber,  who  had 
powdered  himself  over  with  an  old  cast-off  wig,  in  order 
to  introduce  Firmian's  mock  death,  and  break  it  to  the 
people  by  degrees.  They  gave  each  other  a  silent  em- 
brace, and  Henry  said  on  the  morrow  he  would  come 
up-stairs,  and  arrive  in  proper  order. 

On  rejoining  the  people  below,  Firmian  merely  ob- 
served, that  u  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  up-stairs 
but  an  old  wig ;  here  was  the  spear  of  the  nimble- 
footed  spearsman ;  and  he  beheld  before  him  two  timid 
female  hares  and  one  male  hare."  But  the  whole  con- 
venticle knew  very  well  what  they  had  to  think.  A 
person  must  be  totally  devoid  of  understanding  and 
empty-headed  who  would  give  a  farthing  for  the  Ad- 
vocate's life ;  and  the  ghost-seer  and  seeresses  thanked 
God  heartily  for  their  deadly  fright,  as  being  a  pledge 
of  their  own  more  prolonged  life.  Lenette,  during  the 
whole  night,  had  not  the  courage  to  sit  up  in  the  trellis- 
bed,  lest  she  should  see  the  very  image  of  her  hus- 
band. 

On  the  morrow,  Henry  mounted  the  stairs  with  his 
dog,  and  in  dusty  boots.  To  the  Advocate  of  the  Poor 
it  seemed  as  if  the  hat  and  shoulders  of  his  friend  must 
be  strewn  with  blossoms  from  the  Eden  of  Baireuth. 
He  was  as  a  statue  to  him  out  of  the  lost  garden.  For 
Lenette,  on  that  very  account,  this  palm-tree  from  Fir- 
mian's East  Indian  possessions  in  Baireuth  was  nothing 
but  a  prickly  holly  (we  will  not  speak  of  Saufinder), 


224    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


and  now  less  than  ever  could  she  find  any  pleasure  in 
such  a  gooseberry-bush,  such  a  thistle's  head,  which  was 
as  beautiful  as  though  it  came  fresh  from  Hamilton's 
brush.* 

I  cannot  help  acknowledging,  however,  that,  owing  to 
his  warm  affection  for  his  Firmian,  his  behavior  to  Le- 
nette,  who  was  equally  in  the  wrong  and  in  the  right,  was 
somewhat  too  reserved  and  cool.  We  never  hate  a 
woman  more  heartily  than  when  she  torments  our  friend ; 
as,  on  the  other  hand,  a  woman  feels  more  dislike  to  the 
tormentor  of  her  darling  girl. 

The  scene  that  I  am  now  about  to  describe  makes  me 
feel  most  strongly  the  wide  difference  that  exists  between 
the  novel-writer,  who  can  skip  over  everything  disagree- 
able, and  sweeten  everything  for  himself,  his  hero,  and 
his  readers,  and  a  plain  historian  like  myself,  who  must 
dish  up  everything  in  a  purely  historical  form,  and  not 
trouble  himself  about  seasoning  it  either  with  sugar  or 
salt. 

If  formerly,  therefore,  I  entirely  omitted  the  following 
scene,  it  was  a  fault  indeed,  but  not  surprising,  since  it 
was  in  the  years  when  I  preferred  pleasing  my  readers  to 
instructing  them,  and  desired  to  paint  beautifully  rather 
than  to  draw  correctly. 

For  a  long  time  past,  Lenette  had  been  unable  to  en- 
dure Leibgeber  (or  anything  belonging  to  him),  because 
he,  who  was  nothing  but  a  common  man,  and  had  neither 
title  nor  reputation,  conducted  himself  in  public  in  so  free- 
and-easy  a  manner  towards  her  husband,  —  an  advocate 
of  the  poor,  a  learned  scholar,  and  long-established  citizen 

*  Who  distinguished  himself  as  much  by  his  painted  thistles  as 
Swift  by  others. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


225 


of  Kuhschnappel,  —  and  because  he,  as  well  as  her  hus- 
band, who  was  seduced  by  him,  did  not  wear  a  queue  ; 
so  that  many  persons  pointed  at  them  with  their  fingers, 
and  exclaimed,  "  Look  at  the  pair ! "  or,  "  Par  nobile 
fratrum !  "  Lenette  was  able  to  gather  these  and  still 
worse  sayings  from  the  most  genuine  historical  sources. 
It  is  true  that,  at  the  present  day,  it  requires  as  much 
courage  to  append  a  tail  to  one's  person  as  it  did  formerly 
to  cut  it  off.  In  our  days,  unlike  bygone  times,  a  canon 
does  not  need  to  make  himself  a  queue  in  order  to  be  a 
pleasant  companion,  and  consequently  he  is  not  obliged  to 
east  it  off  twice  in  the  year,  like  a  peacock's  tail,  that  he 
may  legally  earn  his  income  of  2,000  florins  by  appearing 
in  the  choir  at  vespers  with  close-cropt  hair.  He  now 
wears  it  so  at  the  card-table  as  well  as  in  the  choir. 

In  the  few  countries  where  the  queue  still  prevails,  it  is 
chiefly  as  the  pendulum  of  service  and  axis  of  state  ;  and 
long  hair,  which,  in  former  days,  was  worn  by  the  Frank 
kings  as  one  of  the  royal  insignia,  is  now  just  as  appro- 
priately worn  by  our  soldiers  as  a  symbol  of  servitude,  so 
long  as  it  is  not  flying  about  loose  and  unbound,  as  was 
the  case  with  the  above-mentioned  kings,  but  tightly  laced 
and  imprisoned  by  the  queue-ribbon.  The  Frieslanders 
have  long  been  accustomed  to  take  ah  oath  by  grasping 
the  queue,  and  this  was  called  the  Bödel  oath ;  *  and 
thus,  in  some  countries,  the  military  or  flag-oath  presup- 
poses a  xmeue  ;  and  if,  among  the  ancient  Germans,  a 
queue  borne  aloft  on  a  pole  represented  a  parish,f  is  it 
not  very  natural  that  a  company  or  regiment,  every  indi- 
vidual soldier  of  which  wears  his  own  tail  behind,  should 


*  Dreyer's  Miscellanies. 

VOL.  II.  10* 


t  Westenrieder's  Calendar. 

o 


226    FLOWER,  FRUIT.  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

form,  so  to  say,  a  company-queue  of  patriotic  union,  and 
represent  German  nationality? 

Lenette  now  no  longer  made  any  secret  of  the  fact  to 
her  husband  (for  Stiefel  supported  her  from  afar)  that, 
in  the  main,  Leibgeber  and  his  ways  were  little  or  not  at 
all  to  her  taste. 

"  My  late  father  was  for  a  long  time  clerk  of  the 
senate,"  said  she,  in  Leibgeber's  presence  ;  "  but  he  be- 
haved like  other  people  both  as  regarded  his  dress  and  in 
other  respects." 

"  In  his  capacity  of  copyist,"  answered  Siebenkäs,  "  he 
was,  of  course,  obliged  to  copy  in  one  way  or  another, 
with  his  pens  or  with  his  coat.  My  father,  on  the  con- 
trary, cocked  rifles  for  princes,  and  did  not  trouble  him- 
self about  anything  else,  and  what  happened,  happened 
There  is  a  considerable  difference  between  the  two  fathers, 
wife  ! " 

She  had  previously,  on  several  occasions,  introduced 
the  subject,  and  compared  the  clerk  with  the  rifle-cocker, 
giving  Siebenkäs  to  understand,  by  innuendoes,  that  his 
father  had  by  no  means  been  so  gentlemanly  as  hers,  and 
that  therefore  he  could  not  have  had  the  genteel  educa- 
tion by  which  people  learn  manners,  and  in  general  how 
to  comport  themselves.  This  ridiculous  contempt  of  his 
genealogical  tree  always  irritated  him  so  much  that  he 
could  not  help  laughing  at  himself.  However,  he  was  less 
struck  by  this  little  side-thrust  at  Leibgeber  than  by  her 
unusual  care  to  avoid  any  physical  contact  with  him  :  she 
could  never  be  induced  to  touch  his  hand  ;  and  a  ki^s 
from  him,  she  said,  would  "  be  the  death  of  her."  Not- 
withstanding all  his  pressing  solicitations  and  questions, 
Siebenkäs  could  get  no  other  answer  from  her  than  the 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


227 


following,  —  she  "  would  tell  him  after  he  was  gone  "  ; 
but  then,  unfortunately,  he  himself  would  be  gone,  and  in 
his  coffin,  that  is  to  say,  on  his  way  to  Vaduz. 

Even  this  unusual  obstinacy  of  a  rigid  cap-block  could 
be  borne  by  him  pretty  tolerably,  at  a  time  when  his  one 
eye  was  warming  itself  beside  his  friend,  the  other  was 
cooling  itself  beside  the  grave. 

At  length  something  else  was  superadded  ;  and  as  I  am 
sure  that  nobody  will  narrate  the  event  more  faithfully 
than  myself,  I  may  be  believed.  One  evening,  just  before 
Leibgeber  returned  to  his  hotel  (I  think  it  was  "The 
Lizard"),  the  deep  black  half-disk  of  a  storm  silently 
arched  itself  over  the  whole  west  of  the  sun,  and  closed 
ever  nearer  and  nearer  over  the  trembling  world.  It  was 
then,  while  the  two  friends  were  conversing  about  the 
glory  of  a  storm,  about  the  union  of  heaven  with  the 
earth,  the  highest  with  the  lowest, —  about  "the  ascension 
of  heaven  into  earth,"  to  use  Leibgeber's  phrase,  that 
Siebenkäs  observed,  how,  in  reality,  it  was  only  the  im- 
agination that  pictured  or  developed  the  storm,  and  that 
by  it  alone  the  highest  was  linked  with  the  lowest.  I 
wish  he  had  followed  the  advice  of  Von  Campe  and  Kolbe, 
and  instead  of  the  foreign  word  "  phantaisie,"  had  em- 
ployed the  native  German  word  for  imagination  ;  for  the 
pure-speaking  language-sweep,  Lenette,  began  to  listen 
as  soon  as  he  had  uttered  the  word.  She,  who  had  noth- 
ing but  jealousy  in  her  bosom,  and  nothing  in  her  head 
but  the  Fantaisie  of  Baireuth,  had  applied  to  it  all  that  the 
friends  had  said  in  praise  of  the  human  imagination  ;  as, 
for  instance,  how  it  (i.  e.  the  Baireuth  Fantaisie,  thought 
Lenette)  blessed  us  by  the  beauty  of  its  lofty  creations ; 
how  it  was  only  by  living  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  beauties 


228    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

that  a  Kuhschnappel  could  be  endured  (certainly,  because 
one  thinks  of  one's  Natalie,  thought  she)  ;  how  it  strewed 
our  barren  life  with  flowers  (with  a  few  silk  "  forget-me- 
nots,"  said  Lenette  to"  herself)  ;  and  how  it  (the  Baireuth 
Fantaisie)  not  only  gilded  the  pills  of  life,  but  also  the 
nuts,  indeed  even  the  Paris-apple  of  beauty  itself. 

Heavens  !  what  double  meanings  on  all  sides  !  for  how 
excellently  Siebenkäs  might  have  confuted  the  error  of 
confounding  the  fantasy,  or  imagination,  with  the  Fan- 
taisie, by  simply  showing  that  little  of  the  poetic  one  was 
to  be  found  in  that  of  the  margraviate,  and  that  Nature 
had  poetically  created  beautiful  romantic  valleys  and 
mountains  which  French  taste  decked  out  with  its  rhe- 
torical flowers,  fabrics  of  periods,  and  antitheses ;  and 
that  Leibgeber's  observation  about  the  imagination,  which 
gilded  the  apple  of  Paris,  was  applicable  to  the  Fantaisie 
in  another  sense,  for  the  French  Christmas-gilding  had 
first  to  be  scraped  off  its  natural  apples  ere  the  fruit 
could  be  tasted. 

Scarcely  had  Leibgeber  quitted  the  house  and  gone 
forth,  as  was  his  wont,  into  the  storm,  which  he  loved  to 
enjoy  out  of  doors,  when  Lenette's  storm  broke  loose, 
before  that  of  the  heavens. 

"  So,  I  have  heard,  with  my  own  ears,  how  this  atheist 
and  peace-breaker  joins  your  name  and  Natalie's  in  the 
Fantaisie  of  Baireuth,  —  and  is  a  woman  to  offer  such  a 
one  her  hand,  or  touch  him  with  a  finger  ?#" 

She  let  a  few  more  thunder-claps  roll  after  this  ;  but  I 
owe  it  to  the  poor  woman,  who,  by  many  different  mix- 
tures, has  become  transformed  into  a  fermen ting-tub,  not 
to  recount  all  her  frothings-up.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
leaven  of  the  husband  also  began  to  ferment ;  for  to  abuse 


CHATTER  XIX. 


his  friend  before  his  face  (no  matter  in  what  misunder- 
standing it  originated,  and  he  did  not  even  seek  to  dis- 
cover, since  none  could  excuse  it)  was  in  his  eyes  a  sin 
against  the  holy  ghost  of  his  friendship,  and  he  accord- 
ingly returned  the  thunder  with  interest. 

It  may  be  said  in  excuse  of  the  man,  and  of  course  of 
the  woman  too,  that  the  sultry  atmosphere  of  the  storm 
fanned  the  fiery  fuel  in  his  head  into  still  fiercer  flames, 
which  made  him  pace  up  and  down  the  room  as  if  he  were 
mad,  and  straightway  blow  up  into  the  air  the  resolution 
he  had  formed  to  overlook  everything  in  his  Lenette  for 
the  short  time  previous  to  his  death  ;  for  he  neither  would 
nor  could  endure  that  the  inheritor  of  his  name  should 
do  injustice,  either  in  word  or  deed,  to  his  last  friend  in 
life  and  death.  I  shall  convey  some  idea  of  the  volcanic 
eruptions  of  the  Advocate,  which,  for  his  sake,  I  shall  pass 
over  in  silence,  when  I  mention  that  he  now  screamed  out, 
thundering  in  emulation  of  the  storm  : 

"  To  such  a  man  !  "  and  with  the  words,  "  You  too  are 
a  woman's  head  ! "  he  gave  a  box  on  the  ear  to  the  cap- 
block,  which  was  already  proudly  adorned  with  a  hat  and 
feathers.  As  this  head  was  Lenette's  favorite  sultana 
among  the  other  heads,  nothing  could  reasonably  have 
been  expected  to  follow  such  a  blow  but  as  violent  an 
outbreak  of  wrath  as  if  it  had  happened  to  herself  (just 
as  Siebenkäs  himself  boiled  over  for  his  friend)  ;  but 
nothing  ensued,  save  a  silent  flood  of  tears. 

"  O  God  !  "  she  only  said,  "  do  you  not  hear  the  awful 
storm  ?  " 

"  Thunder  here,  thunder  there  !  "  retorted  Siebenkäs, 
who  having  once  rolled  over  the  philosophical  sunn  nit 
of  repose,  which  he  had  hitherto  maintained,  fell,  accord- 


230     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


ing  to  both  physical  and  spiritual  laws,  with  ever  in- 
creasing velocity  until  he  reached  the  bottom ;  "  would 
that  the  lightning  did  but  strike  the  heads  of  all  the 
Kuhschnappel  rabble  who  slander  my  Henry  !  " 

As  the  storm  increased  in  loudness,  she  spoke  yet 
more  mildly,  and  said,  "  Jesus  !  what  a  clap  !  Repent, 
lest  it  should  strike  you  in  your  sins ! " 

"  My  Henry  is  out  in  the  open  fields,"  said  he ;  "  0, 
that  the  lightning  would  but  strike  him  dead,  and  me  too 
with  the  same  flash  !  Then  I  should  be  spared  all  this 
wretched  dying,  and  we  should  remain  together  !  " 

So  terribly  daring  —  thus  openly  braving  all  life  and 
religion  —  his  wife  had  never  before  beheld  him,  and  she 
therefore  naturally  expected  that  the  lightning  would 
fall  on  the  Merbitzer-house,  and  strike  both  him  and 
herself  dead,  to  serve  as  a  warning. 

Such  a  dazzling  flash  of  lightning  now  illumined  the 
whole  sky,  followed  by  so  tremendous  a  clap  of  thunder, 
that  she  offered  him  her  hand,  and  said : 
*  "I  am  willing  to  do  everything  you  desire  ;  only,  for 
God's  sake,  be  penitent.  I  will  even  offer  my  hand  to 
Mr.  Leibgeber,  and  kiss  him,  whether  he  has  washed  hil 
or  not  after  his  dog  has  licked  it ;  and  I  will  pay  no  at- 
tention, however  much  you  praise  the  gilding  and  bloom- 
ing Fantaisie." 

Heavens !  how  deep  into  two  labyrinthical  passages 
of  Lenette's  heart  the  lightning  now  threw  its  light, 
revealing  to  him  how  she  had  innocently  confounded 
Fantaisie  and  imagination,  as  I  have  already  related, 
and  how  he  himself  had  mistaken  her  disgust  for  hatred ! 
Respecting  the  latter,  the  fact  was,  that,  in  her  feminine 
cleanliness  and  love  of  neatness,  being  more  nearly  al- 


CHAPTER   XIX.  231 

lied  to  cats  than  to  dogs,  who  disregard  both  and  the 
cats  too,  Leibgeber's  hand,  after  it  had  been  licked  by 
Saufinder's  tongue,  was  for  her  an  Esau's  hand  and  a 
thumb-screw ;  her  disgust  was  such,  that  she  could  not 
endure  to  touch  him ;  and  Henry's  lips,  even  though 
ten  days  might  have  elapsed  since  the  dog  had  sprung 
up  to  them,  were  the  greatest  scarecrows  which  disgust 
could  offer  to  her.  Even  time  was  no  lip-salve  for 
her.* 

But  this  time  the  discovery  of  his  error  did  not  bring 
peace  as  usual,  but  renewed  the  command  of  separation. 
Tears,  indeed,  came  into  his  eyes,  and  he  gave  her  his 
hand,  and  said : 

«  Forgive  for  the  last  time  ;  in  August,  as  it  is,  the 
storms  go  home."  But  he  could  neither  offer  nor  re- 
ceive a  kiss  of  reconciliation.  Irrevocably  did  this  last 
fall  from  his  warmest  resolutions  of  forbearance  pro- 
nounce the  distance  of  their  inner  separation.  What 
avails  the  insight  into  errors,  when  their  sources  re- 
main ?  Of  what  avail  to  cut  off  a  few  streams  from  the 
ocean,  when  the  clouds  and  the  billows  still  exist  ?  The 
insult  he  had  offered  to  the  cap-block  occasioned  him 

*  Nothing  is  more  unreasonable,  unconquerable,  and  inexplicable 
than  disgust,  —  this  inconsistent  alliance  between  the  "will  and  the 
mucous  membrane  of  the  stomach.  Cicero  says,  the  modest  never 
willingly  pronounce  the  word  "modesty"  (this  transcendental  dis- 
gust); and  thus  the  squeamish  person  deals  with  disgust,  particularly 
as  physical  and  moral  purity  are  neighbors,  as  the  cleanly  and  chaste 
Swift  proved  in  his  own  person.  Even  physical  disgust,  the  object  of 
which  is  more  imaginary  than  real,  affects  the  moral  feeling  more  than 
is  supposed.  Pass  through  the  streets  with  indigestible  food  or  tartar 
emetic  in  your  stomach,  and  you  will  feel  towards  twenty  hearts  and 
faces,  and,  on  coming  home,  for  still  more  books,  a  stronger  moral  and 
aesthetic  distaste  than  at  any  other  time. 


232 


FLOWER, 


FRUIT, 


AND  THORN  PIECES. 


afterwards  the  greatest  pain ;  it  became  for  hjm  a  gor- 
gon's  head,  which  forever  threatened  and  revenged. 

He  now  sought  his  friend  with  renewed  love,  he- 
cause  he  had  suffered  in  his  cause,  and  with  new  zeal, 
in  order  to  arrange  with  him  the  plan  of  his  death. 

u  Of  what  dangerous  illness,"  said  Henry,  commenc- 
ing the  medical  consultation,  "  would  you  prefer  to  die  ? 
We  have  the  finest  assortment  of  the  most  fatal  cases 
before  us.  Will  you  have  an  inflammation  of  the  wind- 
pipe, or  öf  the  bowels  (enteritis),  or  an  inflamed  uvula  ;  or 
would  you  prefer  a  brain-fever,  or  a  choking  rheum  ;  or 
is,  perchance,  the  croup,  the  colic,  and  the  Devil  and  his 
grandmother  more  agreeable  to  you  ?  We  have  like- 
wise at  hand  all  the  miasms  and  contagious  matter 
we  may  require  ;  and  if  to  them  we  add,  as  a  poison- 
powder,  the  month  of  August,  —  the  harvest-month  for 
reapers  and  doctors,  —  you  can  never  survive  it." 

"  Like  most  beggars,"  answered  Firmian,  "  you  have 
every  calamity  on  sale,  —  blindness,  lameness,  and  all. 
For  my  own  part  I  am  a  friend  to  apoplexy,  —  this  volti 
subito,  this  express  post,  and  hurried  baptism  of  death. 
I  am  sick  of  all  lawsuit-like  prolixities." 

"  That  is  indeed  the  summarissimum  of  death,"  ob- 
served Leibgeber  ;  "  but  nevertheless,  according  to  the 
best  pathologies  I  am  acquainted  with,  we  must  make 
up  our  minds  to  a  triple  attack  of  apoplexy.  We  can- 
not in  this  matter  regulate  our  conduct  according  to 
Nature,  but  in  accordance  with  a  fundamental  law  of 
medicine,  in  obedience  to  which  Death  always  forwards 
three  bills  of  exchange  before  the  first  is  accepted  and 
honored  yonder,  —  or  he  strikes  three  times  with  his 
auction-hammer." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


233 


"  But,  Devil  take  it !  "  retorted  Siebenkcäs,  in  a  comic- 
ally earnest  voice,  "if  the  apoplexy  strikes  me  power- 
fully twice,  what  more  can  a  physician  require  ?  How- 
ever. I  can't  fall  ill  for  three  or  four  days  to  come ;  I 
Must  wait  for  a  cheaper  coffin-maker." 

The  right  of  making  coffins,  as  is  well  known,  belongs 
to  the  carpenters  by  turns  ;  and  a  person  is  forced  to 
pay  such  a  shipwright  of  the  last  ark  whatever  he  de- 
mands, because  the  heritage  of  a  dead  person,  like  the 
palace  of  a  departed  doge  and  pope,  is  always  given 
over  for  plunder  to  the  undertaker,  the  excise-officer  of 
Death. 

"  This  respite  from  the  gallows,"  answered  Leib- 
geber,  "  may  also  serve  another  purpose  :  look  here,  I 
have  bought  this  old  family  collection  of  sermons  at 
half-price,  because  nowhere  such  impressive  sermons  are 
delivered  as  in  this  work,  and  that,  moreover,  in  its 
wooden  case,  wherein  sits  a  living  preacher,  shut  up  as 
it  were  in  a  pulpit." 

In  this  cover  was  enclosed  the  beetle  called  the  -death- 
tick,  wood-borer,  or  braver  (ptinus  pertinax),  because, 
on  being  touched,  it  assumes  the  appearance  of  a  dead 
animal,  which  it  preserves  amid  all  its  tortures,  and  be- 
cause its  blows,  which  are  nothing  buf  a  knocking  at  the 
door  for  its  loved  mate,  are  taken  for  the  knocking  of 
Death  himself ;  wherefore,  in  former  times,  a  piece  of 
furniture  in  which  this  knocking  was  heard  was  con- 
sidered an  important  prize  and  heir-loom. 

Leibgeber  went  on  to  say,  that,  as  he  hated  nothing  in 
the  world  so  much  as  a  man  who,  from  the  fear  of  death, 
tried  to  outwit  God  and  the  Devil  by  a  sudden  conver- 
sion ;  so  he  liked  to  hide  the  book  of  sermons  for  a 


234    F LOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


few  days,  unobserved,  among  the  furniture  of  hell-fearing 
sinners,  in  order  to  torment  them  well  with  the  funeral 
sermon  which  the  beetle  preached  in  advance,  although 
the  insect  itself,  like  many  other  clergymen,  was  only 
thinking  of  worldly  things.  "  But  could  I  not  take  an 
opportunity  of  inserting  the  volume,  together  with  the 
funeral  preacher,  among  your  books,  that  your  wife 
might  hear  it  and  think  of  death,  —  of  yours,  that  is  to 
say,  —  and  thus,  by  degrees,  become  more  accustomed 
to  it?" 

"  No,  no,"  exclaimed  Firmian,  "  she  shall  not  suffer  so 
much  beforehand ;  she  has  already  suffered  enough." 

"  Be  it  so,  then,"  said  Henry ;  "  though,  in  another 
sense  too,  my  beetle  would  be  very  appropriate  for  you ; 
since  the  death-tick,  or  ptinus  pertinax,  knows  how  to 
simulate  death  as  well  as  you  will." 

As  for  the  rest,  he  rejoiced  that  everything  fitted  to- 
gether so  well,  and  that  exactly  a  year  had  passed  away 
since  he  had  stepped  upon  the  glass  wig  of  Blaise,  and 
had  abused  him  without  harming  himself ;  for  abuse 
remains  in  force  only  a  year,  with  the  exception  of  a 
critic's,  whose  reign  lasts  no  longer  than  that  of  the 
rector  in  Ragusa,  a  month,  —  that  is  to  say,  as  long  as 
the  periodical  circulates  in  the  reading  society ;  even  a 
book,  which  may  be  said  to  hold  the  rank  of  dictator  in 
the  republic  of  letters,  may  not,  on .  account  of  its  great 
influence,  reign  longer  than  a  Roman  dictator,  i.  e.  six 
months. 

They  returned  to  a  newly  dressed  and  newly  arranged 
room.  Lenette  did  what  she  could  to  paint  over  the 
flaws  in  her  housekeeping,  like  those  in  china,  with 
flowers ;  and  she  always  composed  parts  in  which  the 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


235 


broken  string  of  a  piece  of  furniture  would  not  require 
to  be  touched. 

On  this  occasion  Firmian  sacrificed  more  jests  than 
was  otherwise  his  wont,  or  than  Henry  now  did,  to  her 
endeavors  to  erect  screens  everywhere  round  the  heaths 
and  fallows  of  their  poverty.  Women,  even  the  unin- 
tellectual,  are  the  most  acute  augurs  and  prophets  in 
all  that  more  nearly  concerns  themselves.  Lenette  is 
a  proof  of  it.  In  the  evening  Stiefel  was  there.  A 
discussion  arose,  and  the  latter  openly  declared  himself 
to  be  of  opinion,  with  Salvian,  and  many  other  good 
theologians,  that  the  children  of  Israel  —  whose  clothes, 
during  the  forty  years'  sojourn  in  the  wilderness,  never 
had  a  hole  —  always  remained  of  the  same  size,  because 
of  their  dress  ;  excepting  the  children,  who  wore  a  coat 
cut  out  of  the  wardrobe  left  by  the  dead,  which  grew  in 
length  and  breadth  together  with  their  bodies.  "  In 
this  manner,"  added  he,  "  all  the  difficulties  of  the  great 
miracle  are  easily  solved  by  little  by-miracles." 

With  a  sparkling  eye  Leibgeber  answered,  "  I  already 
believed  that  when  I  was  in  my  mother's  womb.  There 
was  not  a  hole  to  be  found  in  all  the  army  of  Israel, 
those  which  were  brought  out  of  Egypt  excepted,  and 
they  never  grew  bigger.  Even  supposing,  indeed,  that, 
during  the  time  of  mourning,  any  one  scratched  a  hole 
in  his  cheek  or  dress,  both  holes  sewed  themselves  to- 
gether again  simultaneously.  It  is  a  crying  pity,  that 
this  was  the  first  and  last  army  whose  uniform  was  a 
fine  kind  of  over-body,  which  grew  with  the  soul  that  it 
enveloped,  and  where,  by  degrees,  the  frock-coat  waxed 
strong  unto  an  electoral  mantle,  and  from  a  microvestis 
grew  into  a  macrovestis.    I  perceive  that,  in  the  wilder- 


236    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


ness,  the  process  of  eating  was  a  cloth  manufactory. 
Manna  was  the  English  wool,  and  the  stomach  was  the 
weaving-loom.  An  Israelite  who  fattened  himself  suf- 
ficiently yielded  at  that  period  in  his  own  person  the 
proper  produce  of  the  land  wilderness.  If  I  had  then 
had  to  enlist  soldiers,  I  should  merely  have  hung  the 
coat  of  the  recruit  on  the  military  measure. 

"  But  how  is  it  in  our  wilderness,  which  does  not 
lead  to  the  promised  land,  but  into  the  land  of  Egypl  ? 
In  our  regiments  the  private  soldiers  grow  every  year, 
but  no  coats  ;  indeed,  the  uniform  is  only  made  for  dry 
years  and  withered  people;  in  wet  seasons  the  clothes 
contract  like  good  hygrometers,  and  perspiration  steals 
more  cloth  than  the  army-tailor,  or  even  than  the  pur- 
veyor. The  general  who  might  happen  to  count  upon 
the  stretching  of  the  regimentals*,  considering,  in  addition 
to  the  example  presented  by  the  Israelites,  that  of  the 
clothes-moths  and  snails,  who  do  not  expand  to  suit 
their  shells,  but  whose  shells  stretch  to  suit  their  bodies  ; 
such  a  chief,  I  say,  would  go  mad  on  the  subject,  be- 
cause the  regiments  would  then  fight  in  the  state  of  the 
ancient  athletes,  and  the  regiments  themselves  would 
become  desperate." 

Lenette  thought  that  this  innocent  sermon,  which 
was  merely  directed  against  Stiefel's  exegetic  folly,  re- 
directed against  her  wardrobe.  This  German  woman  was 
like  the  German  man,  who  looks  for  a  particular  satiri- 
cal kernel  within  every  rocket  and  firework-wheel  of  hu- 
mor. Siebenkäs  therefore  begged  him  to  pardon  his  poor 
wife  —  upon  whose  heart  so  many  sharp-toothed  pains 
were  now  cast,  as  it  was  —  the  unavoidable,  unconquera- 
ble ignorance  of  her  interpretation,  or  rather  to  spare  her 
the  knowledge  of  it  altogether. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


237 


At  length  a  Kuhschnappel  bagnio-proprietor  died,  and 
fell  under  the  plane  of  the  expensive  carpenter. 

"  I  have  now  no  time  to  lose  for  my  apoplexy,"  said 
Siebenkäs,  in  Latin  ;  "  for  who  can  guarantee  that  no 
•  one  shall  die  before  me,  and  appropriate  the  cheap  car- 
penter ?  " 

It  was  therefore  agreed  that  he  should  be  taken  ill  on 
the  following  evening. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Apoplectic  Stroke.  —  The  Upper  Board  of  Health.  —  The 
Public  Notary.  —  The  Will.  —  The  Knight' s-Leap.  —  The 
Preacher  Reuel.  —  The  Second  Stroke. 

N  the  evening  Henry  lifted  the  curtain  of  the 
tragedy,  full  of  comic  grave-digger  scenes,  and 
Firmian  lay  on  the  bed  speechless,  with  an 
apoplectic  head  and  the  whole  of  his  right  side 
paralyzed.  The  patient  could  only  forgive  himself  for  his 
imposture,  and  the  pain  it  occasioned  Lenette,  by  taking 
a  secret  oath  to  send  her  anonymously  the  half  of  his 
annual  income  when  he  was  inspector  at  Vaduz  ;  and  by 
picturing  to  himself  that,  through  his  death,  she  would 
gain  joy,  freedom,  and  her  lover.  The  tenants  of  the 
house  gathered  in  a  circle  round  the  stricken  man  ;  but 
Leibgeber  drove  them  all  out  of  the  room,  saying  that 
the  sufferer  required  rest.  It  afforded  him  real  pleasure 
to  be  able  to  go  on  uttering  humorous  lies  one  after  the 
other.  He  filled  the  office  of  hereditary  imperial  door- 
keeper, and  locked  the  door  against  the  doctor,  who  was 
prescribed. 

"  I  will  prescribe  some  little  remedy  for  the  patient 
myself,"  said  he,  "  but  that  little  will  restore  to  him, 
for  a  time,  the  power  of  speech.    The  confounded  dead- 


CHAPTER  XX.  239 

rivers  of  mixtures,  Mr.  Schulrath,  (for  the  latter  had 
been  fetched  immediately,)  are  like  the  rivers  which 
every  year  demand  a  dead  body." 

He  prescribed  a  simple  cooling  draught,  and  read 
aloud,  as  he  wrote  : 

"R  Conch,  citratae  sirup,  j. 
Nitri  crystallisati  gr.  x. 
D.S.  cooling  mixture." 

"  But,  before  all,"  said  he,  in  a  commanding  tone,  "  the 
feet  of  the  patient  must  be  bathed  in  warm  water." 

The  whole  house  knew  that  all  would  be  unavailing, 
since  his  death  had  been  but  too  truly  foretold  by  the 
pale  apparition  ;  and  Fecht  felt  a  sort  of  compassionate 
satisfaction  that  he  had  not  prophesied  wrong. 

Scarcely  had  the  invalid  swallowed  the  cooling  draught, 
when  he  was  again  able  to  speak  intelligibly,  though 
not  loud,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  burial  insurance 
company  in  the  chamber.  The  domestic  tribunal  was 
hardly  glad  of  it ;  but  the  good  Henry  had  now  an 
excuse  for  resuming  his  cheerful  mien.  He  consoled 
the  Advocate's  wife,  by  saying,  that  "  pain  here  below 
was  nothing  more  than  an  initiation  to  something  higher, 
—  the  box  on  the  ear,  or  sword-stroke,  by  which  a  man  is 
made  a  knight." 

The  sick  man  had  a  very  tolerable  night  after  the 
draught,  and  he  himself  again  cherished  some  hope. 
Henry  would  not  permit  the  good  Lenette,  with  her 
eyes  full  of  tears  and  sleep,  to  watch  by  his  bedside  at 
night.  He  said,  he  himself  would  wait  on  the  patient, 
if  he  should  grow  worse  in  the  night ;  but  the  latter 
event  was  not  possible,  since  in  the  night  they  agreed 
with  one  another,  like  princes,  in  Latin,  that  death,  or 


240    FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


the  fifth  act  of  this  tragic  interlude,  which  in  the  tragedy 
of  life  is  only  a  scene,  should  take  place  on  the  morrow 
evening! 

M  Even  to-morrow,"  said  Firmian,  "  is  too  long.  My 
Lenelte's  distress  is  inexpressibly  painful  to  me.  Alas! 
like  David,  I  have  to  make  a  wretched  selection  be- 
tween famine,  pestilence,  and  war,  and  no  other  choice 
is  left  me  but  his.  You,  dear  brother,  you  are  my 
Cain,  and  you  kill  me,  and  believe  as  little  as  he  did 
in  the  world  to  which  you  send  me.*  Verily,  before 
you  prescribed  me  the  cooling  powder  which  obliged  me 
to  speak,  I  wished,  in  my  silent  gloom,  that  the  jest 
would  become  earnest.  One  day  I  must  pass  through,  — 
through  the  gate  beneath  the  earth  which  leads  from 
the  dwellings  around  into  the  fortress  of  futurity,  where 
we  are  safe.  O  Henry  !  it  is  not  the  act  of  dying  that 
is  so  painful,  but  the  parting  —  I  mean,  from  worthy' 
souls." 

"  Against  this  last  bayonet-thrust  of  life,"  answered 
Henry,  "  Nature  holds  before  us  a  broad  Achilles'- 
shield.  On  the  death-bed  our  moral  feelings  become 
cold  before  we  ourselves  become  so  physically  ;  a  strange 
courtier-like  indifference  to  all  from  whom  we  have  to 
part  creeps  like  frost  through  the  dying  nerves.  Sage 
spectators  afterwards  say,  '  Behold,  only  a  Christian  can 
die  so  resignedly  and  trustingly  ! '  Do  not  mind,  good 
Firmian.  The  few  sad,  hot  minutes  you  must  suffer 
until  to-morrow  are,  for  the  sick  spirit,  like  a  good 
warm  bath  of  Aix  water,  which,  to  say  the  truth,  has 

*  The  Rabbis  pretend  that  Cain  murdered  his  brother  because  the 
latter  confuted  him  when  he  (Cain)  denied  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Thus  the  first  murder  was  *n  auto-da-fe,  and  the  first  war  a  religious 
war. 


CIIAPTEE  XX. 


241 


a  horrible  stench  of  rotten  eggs,  but  after  some  time, 
when  the  water  is  cold,  it  does  not  smell  at  all." 

Oa  the  morrow,  Henry  commended  him,  in  the  fol- 
lowing strain  :  "  As  Cato  the  Younger  slept  peacefully 
the  night  before  his  death  (history  heard  him  snore), 
so  you  also  appear  this  night  to  have  given  a  renewed 
example  of  that  greatness  of  soul,  in  these  marrowless 
times :  if  I  were  your  Plutarch,  I  should  mention  this 
circumstance." 

"  But  in  earnest,"  answered  Firmian,  "  I  should  be 
very  glad  if,  some  years  hence,  when  death  shall  have 
sent  the  second  bill  of  exchange,  some  clever  man,  some 
-  historical  painter  —  West  —  should  honor  this  strange 
first  death  of  mine  with  a  good  description  for  the  press." 
....  A  biographical  West  has,  it  seems,  so  honored  it ; 
but  I  will  candidly  confess  that  it  gave  me  incredible 
pleasure  to  find  among  the  documents  this  bedside  con- 
versation and  wish,  which  I  am  so  literally  fulfilling. 

Thereupon  Leibgeber  said :  "  The  Jesuits  in  Löwen 
once  upon  a  time  edited  a  little  book,  in  which  the  ter- 
rible end  of  Luther  was  well  described,  but  in  Latin. 
Old  Luther  got  hold  of  the  work,  and  translated  it,  as  he 
did  the  Bible,  merely  adding  at  the  end,  ' I,  Dr.  Martin 
Luther,  have  myself  read  and  translated  this  narrative.' 
Were  I  in  your  place,  I  would  also  write  this  remark 
when  I  translated  my  death  into  English." 

Do  write  this,  dear  Siebenkäs,  since  you  are  still  alive ; 
but,  by  all  means,  translate  me  ! 

The  morning  generally  brings  refreshment  to  the 
human  laid-corn,  whether  upon  the  hard  sick-bed  or  on 
the  softer  mattress,  and  with  its  morning  breeze  it  raises 
up  the  bowed  flowers  and  human  heads  ;  but  our  invalid 

vol.  11.  11  p 


242     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


remained  lying.  The  disease  made  anxious  progress,  and 
he  could  not  disguise  from  himself  that  he  retrograded ; 
at  all  events,  he  determined  to  settle  his  affairs.  This 
first  quarter  to  the  hour  of  dying,  struck  by  the  death- 
bell,  pressed  like  a  heavy,  sharp  bell-hammer  into  Le- 
nette's  heart,  out  of  which  the  warm  stream  of  early  love 
burst  forth  in  bitter  tears. 

Firmian  could  not  look  upon  this  unconsolable  weep- 
ing ;  he  stretched  out  his  arms  beseechingly,  and  the 
suffering  one  laid  herself  gently  and  obediently  between 
them,  on  his  bosom ;  and  now  the  warmest  love  mingled 
their  hearts,  their  tears,  and  their  sighs  ;  and  though 
deeply  wounded,  they  reposed  happily  in  each  other's 
arms,  at  so  short  a  distance  from  the  boundary-hill  of 
parting. 

For  the  sake  of  his  poor  afflicted  wife,  therefore,  he 
grew  visibly  better ;  this  amelioration  was  also  necessary, 
to  explain  the  good-humor  with  which  he  executed  big 
last  will.  Leibgeber  expressed  satisfaction  on  the  pa- 
tient's being  once  more  in  condition  to  dine  on  the  table- 
cloth of  the  coverlet,  and  to  drain  entirely  a  large  plate- 
ful of  soup  like  a  pond. 

"  The  cheerful  humor,"  said  Leibgeber  to  Pelzstiefel, 
"  which  gleams  forth  again  in  our  invalid,  gives  me  great 
hopes  ;  but  he  evidently  only  ate  the  soup  to  please  his 
wife." 

No  one  ever  lied  oftener,  and  was  fonder  of  lying  from 
satire  and  humor,  than  Leibgeber ;  and  no  one  could  be 
more  intolerant  to  serious  dishonesty  and  cunning  than 
he  was.  He  could  tell  a  thousand  lies  in  jest,  and  no 
two  in  need ;  in  the  former  case,  every  deceitful  expres- 
sion of  countenance  and  lying  phrase  was  at  his  com- 
mand ;  in  the  latter,  not  one. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


243 


In  the  forenoon,  the  Schulrath  and  Merbitzer  the  land- 
lord were  invited  to  the  bedside. 

"  Gentlemen,"  began  the  sick  man,  "  I  intend  this  after- 
noon to  have  my  last  will,  and  to  say  at  the  judgment-bar 
of  Nature  three  things  that  I  desire,  as  was  the  custom 
in  Athens  ;  *  but  I  will  now  at  once  make  known  one 
testament  before  making  the  second,  or  rather  the  codicil 
of  the  first.  I  request  my  friend  Leibgeber  to  pack  up 
and  keep  all  my  written  papers  as  soon  as  I  myself  am 
packed  up  in  my  last  cover  with  its  address.  Further, 
having  as  precedents  the  Danish  kings,  the  old  Austrian 
dukes,  and  the  noble  Spaniards,  —  the  first  of  whom  were 
buried  in  their  armor,  the  second  in  lions'  skins,  the  third 
in  miserable  capuchin  hoods,  —  I  will  and  appoint  that  no 
one  shall  refuse  to  plant  me  in  the  bed  of  the  other  world 
with  the  old  pod  or  shell  in  which  I  flourished  in  the  first, 
—  in  a  word,  just  as  I  am  now  whilst  making  my  will. 

"  This  injunction  entails  the  necessity  of  a  third,  which 
is,  that  the  woman  who  lays  out  the  corpses  be  paid,  and 
immediately  dismissed ;  for,  during  my  whole  life,  I  have 
had  an  especial  antipathy  to  two  women,  the  oife  who 
washes  us  into  life,  and  the  other  who  washes  us  out  of 
it,  only  in  a  somewhat  larger  wash-tub  than  the  former, 
i.  e.  the  midwife,  and  the  woman  who  lays  out  the  dead : 
the  latter  shall  not  lay  a  finger  on  me,  and  indeed  nobody 
shall  but  my  Henry." 

His  dislike  to  these  servants  of  life  and  death  origi- 
nated, probably,  from  the  same  cause  as  my  own,  that  is, 
from  the  imperious  and  greedy  manner  in  which  these 
two  planters  and  purveyors  of  the  cradle  and  the  bier 

*  Every  condemned  person  in  Athens  was  permitted  to  say  publicly 
three  such  things.  —  Casaubon. 


244    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

squeeze  and  press  us,  precisely  in  our  two  disarmed  hours 
of  highest  joy  and  deepest  grief. 

"  Furthermore,  I  will  and  appoint  that  Henry  shall 
roof  over  and  shield  my  face  forever,  as  soon  as  it  has 
made  the  sign  of  parting,  with  the  long-necked  mask 
which  I  brought  down  out  of  the  old  box.  I  desire  also, 
when  I  depart  from  all  the  fields  of  my  past,  and  hear 
nothing  behind  me  but  the  rustling  hay-cocks  of  the 
aftermath,  to  have  the  silken  garland  of  my  wife  hi  id 
upon  my  bosom,  as  the  symbol  of  lost  joys.  With  such 
mock-insignia,  it  is  most  suitable  to  go  out  of  a  life  that 
has  dished  us  up  so  many  pasteboard  pies  full  of  wind. 

"  Lastly,  I  will  that  no  one  on  my  departure  shall 
blow  the  horn  after  me  from  the  church-tower,  as  after 
a  Carlsbad  patient ;  for,  like  the  visitors  of  Carlsbad,  we 
sick  watering-place  visitors  of  life  are  received  and  sent 
away  with  music  on  the  towers.  This  I  more  particu- 
*  larly  ordain,  because  the  servants  of  the  church  are  not 

as  reasonable  as  the  Carlsbad  steeple-warder,  who  only 
demands  three  pieces  per  head  for  blowing  visitors  in 
and  out." 

He  now  desired  Lenette's  profile  to  be  given  him  in 
his  bed,  and  said,  in  a  faltering  tone,  "  I  beg  my  good 
Henry  and  Mr.  Landlord  to  quit  the  room  for  a  minute, 
and  to  leave  me  alone  with  Mr.  Schulrath  and  my 
wife." 

"When  it  was  done,  he  looked  long,  in  silence  and 
with  warmth,  on  the  little,  dear  picture.  His  eye  over- 
flowed with  sorrow,  like  a  broken  embankment.  He 
handed  the  portrait  to  the  Schulrath,  paused,  overpow- 
ered by  his  emotions,  and  at  length  said  : 

"  To  you,  faithful  friend,  to  you  alone,  can  I  give  this 


CHAPTER  XX. 


245 


beloved  image  ;  you  are  her  friend  and  my  friend.  O 
God!  no  one  upon  the  whole  wide  earth  will  lake  care 
of  my  good  Lenette  if  you  forsake  her.  Weep  not  so 
bitterly,  dear  one  ;  he  will  provide  for  you.  O  my  dear- 
est friend,  this  helpless,  innocent  heart  will  break  in  its 
lonesome  sorrow,  if  you  do  not  protect  and  tranquillize  it ! 
0,  forsake  it  not,  as  I  do  !  " 

The  Schulrath  swore  by  the  Almighty  he  would 
never  forsake  her  ;  and  he  took  Lenette's  hand  and 
pressed  it,  without  looking  at  the  weeping  one  ;  while 
with  drooping  eyes  he  hung  over  the  countenance  of  his 
dying  friend.  But  Lenette  pushed  him  away  from  the 
bosom  of  her  husband,  liberated  her  hand,  and  sunk 
upon  the  lips  which  had  so  touched  her  heart ;  and  Fir- 
mian  clasped  her  with  his  left  arm  to  his  refreshed  heart, 
and  stretched  out  his  right  hand,  under  cover,  to  his 
friend  ;  and  he  now  held  to  his  oppressed  bosom  the 
two  nearest  heavens  of  earth  united,  —  friendship  and 
love  

And  this  it  is  which  ever  consoles  and  delights  me 
in  you  deluded  and  disagreeing  mortals,  —  that  you  all 
love  one  another  heartily  when  you  behold  each  other  in 
pure  human  form,  without  bandages  and  fogs,  —  that  we 
only  become  blind  when  we  fear  we  are  growing  cold, 
—  and  that,  as  soon  as  Death  has  lifted  our  brothers  and 
sisters  above  the  clouds  of  our  errors,  the  heart  melts  in 
love  and  blessedness  when  it  beholds  them,  free  from  the 
distortions  of  the  concave  mirrors  and  fogs  here  below, 
floating  in  the  transparent  ether,  as  beautiful  beings,  and 
sighs,  "  Ah,  in  such  a  form  as  this,  I  had  never  misun- 
derstood you ! "  Therefore  every  good  soul  stretches 
out  its  arms  to  the  men  whom  the  poet  in  his  cloud-built  1 


246    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


heaven  exhibits  to  our  eyes  below  as  genii ;  and  yet,  if 
he  were  to  let  them  sink  down  upon  our  bosoms,  in  a  few 
days  they  would  lose  their  beautiful  transfiguration  upon 
the  dirty  ground  of  our  wants  and  errors.  Thus,  too, 
the  crystal  water  of  the  glaciers,  which  refreshes  without 
giving  cold,  must  be  caught  as  it  trickles  from  the  ice- 
diamond,  because  it  is  made  impure  by  air  as  soon  as  it 
touches  the  ground.* 

The  Schulrath  went  away,  but  only  to  the  doctor. 
This  noble  generalissimo  of  friend  Hain,  who  did  not  bear 
the  title  of  councillor  of  the  upper  board  of  health  for 
nothing,  but  for  money,  was  quite  willing  to  visit  the  sick 
man  ;  —  firstly,  because  the  Schulrath  was  a  man  of  repu- 
tation and  fortune ;  and  secondly,  because  Siebenkäs,  as 
subscriber  to  the  corpse-lottery,  —  of  which  the  doctor 
was  corresponding  member  and  frere  servant,  —  ought  not 
to  die  ;  for  this  burial-fund  formed  a  convenient  fund  of 
supply  for  the  shareholders. 

Leibgeber  was  dreadfully  terrified  on  beholding  the 
officer  of  the  upper  board  of  health  approach  in  order  of 
battle ;  he  feared  lest,  through  the  doctor's  agency,  mat- 
ters should  really  become  worse,  so  that  Siebenkäs  might 
chance  to  leave  behind  him  the  celebrity  of  Moliere,  who 
died  upon  the  stage  while  acting  the  Malade  Imaginaire. 

He  considered  the  relation  existing  between  physician 
and  patient  as  uncertain  as  that  between  woodpeckers  or 
bark-bugs  and  trees,  inasmuch  as  it  is  still  subject  to  dis- 
pute whether  the  trees  wither  in  consequence  of  the  boring 
and  egg-laying  of  these  animals,  or  whether,  on  the  con- 
trary, these  animals  come  flying  to  the  trees  because  their 
bark  is  already  worm-eaten  and  the  trunk  dead.   For  my 

*  De  Lüc,  Little  Travels  for  Travel-Dilettanti,  Vol.  III. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


247 


own  part,  with  respect  to  the  woodpeckers  and  bugs,  and 
also  the  physicians,  I  believe  that  both  are  alternately 
cause  and  effect,  and  that  the  existence  of  an  animal  can- 
not of  necessity  presuppose  decay  ;  otherwise,  on  the  crea- 
tion of  the  earth  a  dead  horse  must  likewise  have  been 
created  for  the  carrion-flies,  and  a  great  goat's  cheese  for 
the  cheese-mites. 

The  councillor  of  the  upper  board  of  health,  Oelhafen, 
passing  the  healthy  ones  with  angry  unpoliteness,  went 
straight  up  to  the  sick  man,  and  immediately  fell  upon 
the  second  hand  of  life,  —  the  medical  divining-rod,  the 
pulse.  Leibgeber  set  the  plough  of  satirical  wrath  in  his 
face,  drew  crooked  furrows,  and  determined  to  plough  deep. 

"  I  find,"  said  the  learned  practitioner,  "  a  true  case 
of  nervous  apoplexy  from  over-fulness ;  the  physician 
should  have  been  called  in  earlier.  The  full,  hard  pulse 
announces  a  repetition  of  the  stroke  ;  but  an  emetic  which 
I  will  administer  will  produce  the  best  effect "  ;  —  where- 
upon he  drew  forth  little  emetic  billet-doux,  wrapped  up 
like  bonbons.  He  had  the  emetics  on  sale  himself,  and 
exercised  this  harmless  trade  throughout  the  country  like 
a  Jew  pedler.  There  were  few  diseases  in  which  he 
could  not  employ  his  emetics  as  means  of  grace,  wagon- 
levers,  pump-handles,  and  purgatories.  He  was  particu- 
larly active  in  the  employment  of  these  remedies  in 
apoplexies,  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  headache,  and  bil- 
ious fevers.  As  a  preliminary  step,  he  cleared  the  first 
passages,  he  said,  and,  in  so  doing,  often  cleared  away  the 
possessor  of  the  first  passages  at  the  same  time,  who  after- 
wards very  easily  entered  the  last  passage  of  all  flesh. 

Leibgeber  kneaded  his  queer  face  into  all  sorts  of 
shapes,  and  said  :  "  Mr.  Colleague,  and  Protomedicus  von 


248     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES.^ 

Oelhafen,  we  may  hold  a  concilium,  or  consilium,  or 
collegium  medicum  here.  It  seems  to  me  that  my  cooling 
draught  was  very  expedient,  since  it  yesterday  restored 
Apoplectico  his  power  of  speech." 

The  Protomedicus  took  him  for  a  quack,  and  said  to 
Pelzstiefel,  without  so  much  as  looking  at  his  colleague : 
"  Order  wärm  water  to  be  brought ;  I  will  administer  it 
myself." 

"  Shall  we  two  take  it  together,"  exclaimed  Leibgeber, 
indignantly,  "  since  both  our  gall-bladders  are  emptying 
themselves  ?  The  patient  must .  not,  shall  not,  cannot 
take  it." 

"  Are  you  a  practising  physician,  sir  ?  "  said  the  coun- 
cillor of  the  upper  board  of  health,  in  a  tone  of  haughty 
contempt. 

"  I  am,"  said  he,  "  a  doctor  jubilant,  and  that  from  the 
time  I  ceased  to  be  a  fool.  You  must  recollect  that  there 
is  in  Haller  an  account  of  a  fool  who  once  maintained  he 
was  beheaded,  until  he  was  cured  by  a  hat  of  lead.  A 
head  roofed  and  mitred  with  lead  could  be  as  sensibly  felt 
as  a  head  that  is  filled  with  it.  I  was  almost  as  great  a 
fool  myself,  Mr.  Colleague  ;  I  had  an  inflammation  of  the 
brain,  and  learnt  too  late  that  it  was  already  cured  and 
extinguished  ;  in  short,  I  fancied  that  my  head  had  peeled 
off,  just  as  the  mouldering  feet  fall  off,  like  crab's  claws,  if 
one  has  eaten  too  much  ergot.  When  the  barber  came, 
and  threw  down  his  purple  work-baf  and  quiver,  I  said, 
'  My  dear  Mr.  Master  Sporl,  flies,  tortoises,  and  adders, 
indeed,  have  lived,  like  me,  after  they  had  lost  their  heads, 
but  there  was  little  on  them  to  be  shaved.  You  are  a 
man  of  sense,  and  perceive  that  I  can  no  more  be  shaved 
than  the  torso  in  Rome.    Where  were  you  thinking  of 


CHAPTER  XX. 


soaping  me,  Mr.  Spörl?'  He  had  scarcely  gone  when  the 
wig-maker  entered.  '  Another  time,  Mr.  Peisser,'  said 
f;  'unless  you  wish  to  curl  the  air  around  me,  or  the 
hair  on  my  breast,  you  may  stick  your  combs  into  your 
waistcoat  pocket  again.  Since  midnight  I  have  been 
living  without  frieze  and  cornice,  and,  like  the  tower  of 
Babel,  I  am  without  a  cupola.  But  if  you  will  look  for 
my  head  in  the  neighboring  chamber,  and  append  a  queue 
or  toupe  to  my  caput  mortuum,  I  will  accept  it,  and  put 
on  the  head  as  a  queue-wig.'  Luckily  the  rector  mag- 
nificus,  a  physician,  arrived,  and  beheld  my  sorrow,  as  I 
struck  my  hands  together,  exclaiming,  '  Where  are  my 
four  brain-chambers,  and  my  corpus  callosum,  and  my 
anus  cerebri,  and  my  egg-shaped  centrum,  which,  accord- 
ing to  Glaser,  is  the  dwelling-place  of  the  imagination  ? 
How  can  a  rump-parliament  apply  spectacles  and  listen- 
ing trumpets  ?  The  causes  are  well  known.  Is  it  come 
to  this  with  the  best  monoecious  head  in  the  world,  that  it 
has  got  no  head  to  house  its  seed  ? '  But  the  rector  mag- 
nificus  sent  for  an  old  narrow  doctor's  hat  from  the  uni- 
versity cupboard,  and  fitting  it  on  me  with  a  gentle  blow, 
said,  'The  faculty  places  its  doctor's  hat  only  upon  a 
head,  —  upon  a  nothing  it  could  not  stick  at  all ' ;  and  by 
means  of  the  hat  a  new  head  grew  on  my  imagination  as 
upon  beheaded  snails  ;  and  now,  ever  since  I  was  cured 
myself,  I  cure  others." 

The  councillor  of  the  upper  board  of  health  turned 
away  from  him  the  eyeball  of  a  basilisk,  and  let  himself 
down  stairs  in  anger  by  his  cane  ribbon,  like  a  bale  of 
goods,  without  taking  with  him  his  unsealed  emetic, — 
his  passport  to  the  other  world,  —  which  remained  to  be 
paid  for  out  of  the  purse  of  the  patient. 
11* 


250     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

But  the  good  Henry  bad  to  wage  a  new  war  with 
Stiefel  and  Lenette,  until  Firmian  threw  himself  between 
the  parties  as  mediator,  by  the  assurance  that  he  woulft 
on  no  account  have  taken  the  emetic,  since  he  could  not 
have  borne  it,  because  of  an  old  disease  in  his  chest  .(alas ! 
he  meant  it  figuratively),  and  some  gordian  knots  in  his 
lungs  (the  knots  of  his  earthly  drama). 

However,  there  was  no  concealing  the  fact,  simulate 
as  he  would,  that  he  grew  worse  and  worse.  He  was 
threatened  every  moment  by  the  ricochet-sho't  of  the 
stroke. 

"  It  is  time,"  said  Firmian,  "  that  I  should  make  my 
will.    I  am  eager  for  the  land-notary  to  arrive." 

This  notary,  as  is  well  known,  draws  up  all  the  last 
wills  and  testaments,  according  to  the  town  and  village 
laws  of  Kuhschnappel. 

At  length  he  entered,  —  the  notary  Börstel,  a  withered, 
dried-up  snail,  with  a  round,  shy,  listening,  flat-button 
face,  full  of  hunger,  anxiety,  and  attention.  Many 
thought  that  his  flesh  was  only  smeared  over  his  bones, 
like  the  new  Swedish  stone-stucco. 

"  What  shall  I  write  for  your  honor  to-day  ? "  began 
Börstel. 

"  My  elegant  codicil,"  said  Siebenkäs  :  "  but  first  try 
me  with  a  fewT  questions,  such  as  are  usually  put  to  testa- 
tors, in"  order  to  see  if  I  am  in  my  right  mind." 

The  latter  inquired,  "  For  whom  do  you  take  me  ?  " 

"  For  Mr.  Notary  Börstel,"  answered  the  patient. 

"  That  is  not  only  perfectly  correct,"  replied  Börstel, 
«  but  it  is  evident  that  you  are  not  at  all  delirious :  and 
we  may  proceed  without  further  delay  to  draw  up  the 
last  codicil  of  your  will." 


CHAPTER  XX.  251 

Last  Will  and  Testament  of  the  Advocate  op  the 
Poor,  Siebenkäs. 

"  Undersigned,  who  is  now  about  to  turn  yellow  and 
fall  off,  together  with  other  August  apples,  desires,  on  his 
near  approach  to  death,  which  dissolves  the  corporeal 
bondage  of  the  spirit,  to  perform  a  few  more  back-steps, 
and  side-steps,  and  great-grandfather  dances,  three  minutes 
before  the  Basle  dance  of  death." 

The  notary  paused,  and  asked  in  astonishment,  "  Am 
I  to  put  much  more  of  such  stuff  to  paper  ?  " 

"  In  the  first  place,  I,  Firmian  Stanislaus  Siebenkäs, 
alias  Heinrich  Leibgeber,  will  and  appoint  that  my  guar- 
dian, Mr.  Heimlicher  von  Blaise,  de  and  shall-  pay  over, 
within  a  year  and  a  day,  the  1,200  florins  of  which  he  has 
so  impiously  defrauded  me  his  ward,  to  my  friend,  Mr. 
Leibgeber,  Inspector  in  Vaduz,*  who  will  afterwards 
faithfully  deliver  them  over  to  my  dear  wife.  If  Mr.  von 
Blaise  should  refuse,  I  here  lift  up  my  forefinger,  and 
swear  solemnly  upon  my  death-bed,  that,  after  my  de- 
cease, I  will  prosecute  him,  —  not  in  the  courts  at  law, 
but  in  the  spirit,  be  it  that  I  appear  to  him  in  the  form  of 
the  Devil,  or  as  a  tall  white  man,  or  merely  as  a  voice,  ac- 
cording as  circumstances,  after  my  death,  may  allow  me." 

The  notary  paused,  with  the  feathered  arm  in  the  air, 
and  quaked  with  terror.  "  I  fear,"  said  he,  "  that  if  I 
write  down  such  things,  Mr.  Heimlicher  will,  in  the  end, 
catch  me  by  the  wing." 

*  I.  e.  to  himself.  He  desires  his  inheritance  to  be  delivered  over  to 
himself  rather  than  to  his  wife;  possibly  because  she  might  within 
this  term  have  married  a  rich  man.  In  this  way,  too,  he  would  more 
easily  learn  the  fact,  should  the  Heimlicher  neglect  to  obey  his  com- 
mand, and  he  could  then  carry  out  the  threat  which  follows. 


252    FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AI\ D   THORN  PIECES. 


But  Leibgeber,  with  his  body  and  face,  cut  off  his  re- 
treat across  the  hell's  portal  of  the  chamber. 

"  Further,  as  reigning  sovereign  of  the  shooters,  I  will 
and  appoint  that  no  war  of  succession  shall  make  my 
will  a  succession-powder  for  innocent  people  :  further, 
that  the  republic  of  Kuhschnappel,  to  whose  Gonfaliere 
and  Doge  I  was  balloted  by  the  shooters'  bullets  (balls), 
shall  wage  no  defensive  wars,  because  it  cannot  thereby 
defend  itself,  but  only  offensive  wars,  in  order  at  least 
to  extend  the  boundaries  of  its  empire,  since  they  cannot 
be  covered,  —  and  that  all  its  members  shall  be  as  spar- 
ing of  wood  as  their  dying  imperial  market-town  father. 
Now  that  woods  and  forests  are  turned  into  charcoal 
faster  than  others  grow  up  in  their  place,  the  only  an- 
tidote to  such  a  state  of  things  is,  that  the  climate  itself 
be  heated,  and  turned  into  a  great  drying-kiln  and  field- 
stove,  in  order  to  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  room- 
stoves  ;  and,  indeed,  this  has  been  the  means  already 
adopted  by  all  just  forest-commissioners,  who  first  root 
out  all  the  frost  materials  —  the  woods  —  which  are  full 
of  lingering  winter.  If  we  reflect  how  admirably 
modern  Germany  contrasts  with  the  Germany  mapped 
out  by  Tacitus,  warmed,  as  it  now  is,  simply  by  the 
clearing  away  of  the  forests,  we  may  come  to  the  safe 
conclusion,  that,  at  last,  as  soon  as  there  is  no  more  tim- 
ber, we  shall  acquire  a  degree  of  warmth,  when  the  air 
will  be  our  fur-cloak.  The  present  superfluity  is  also 
burnt  into  ashes  in  order  to  enhance  the  price  of  raft- 
wood  ;  as  in  the  year  1760  eight  million  livres'  worth 
of  nutmegs  were  publicly  burnt  in  order  to  keep  up  the 
price. 

"  Further,  as  king  of  the  Kuhschnappel  Jerusalem,  I 


CHAPTER  XX.  253 

will  and  decree  that  the  senate  and  people  (senatus  po- 
pulusque  Kuhschnappeliensis)  be  not  damned,  but  blessed, 
especially  in  this  world ;  further,  that  the  city  magnates 
do  not  swallow  the  nests  (houses)  of  Kuhschnappel  with 
the  Indian  ones  ;  andfcthat  the  taxas,  which  must  pass 
through  the  four  stomachs  of  the  gatherers,  —  through 
the  paunch,  the  reticule  or  honeycomb  stomach,  the 
manyplies  stomach,  and  the  reed,  —  shall,  nevertheless,  be 
converted  at  last  from  chyle  into  red  blood  (from  silver 
into  gold),  and,  after  having  circulated  through  the  milk- 
vessels,  the  milk-bag,  and  milk-passage,  shall  be  properly 
impelled  into  the  veins  of  the  body  of  the  state.  Fur- 
ther, I  will  and  appoint  that  the  great  senate  and  little 

senate  " 

The  notary  wished  to  leave  off,  and  shook  his  head 
strenuously  ;  but  Leibgeber  was  amusing  himself  with 
the  rifle  by  which  the  testator  had  mounted  the  shooter's 
throne,  whereas  others  raise  themselves  to  the  throne 
by  the  leaping-poles  of  other  people's  ramrods ;  and 
Börstel  continued  to  write  in  the  morning-sweat  of  his 
brow  :  — 

"  that  the  judge,  the  treasurer,  the  Heimlicher, 

the  eight  senators,  and  the  sheriff,  shall  listen  to  reason, 
and  reward  no  merit  but  that  of  other  people ;  and  that 
the  rascal  Blaise  and  the  rascal  Meyern  shall  daily  lay 
thrashing  hands  upon  each  other,  as  relatives,  in  order 
that,  at  least,  there  may  be  one  to  punish  the  other." 

Thereupon  the  notary  sprung  up,  said  that  it  took 
away  his  breath,  and  went  to  the  window  to  inhale  a 
purer  air  ;  and,  perceiving  a  heap  of  tanner's  bark  piled 
up  a  little  distance  below  the  window,  he  was  impelled 
by  fright,  which  shoved  him  on  from  behind,  to  jump 


254    FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

on  the  window-ledge.  After  such  a  first  step,  before 
a  witness  could  catch  him  by  the  skirts,  he  made  a 
second  long  one  in  the  empty  air ;  and,  like  the  tongue 
of  his  own  .steelyard,  tumbled  out  of  the  window,  so 
that  he  could  easily  reach  the  1<4H  footstool  ,  — —  x  mean, 
the  heap  of  tanner's  bark.  As  a  falling  artist,  he  could 
not  do  better,  after  his  arrival,  than  make  use  of  his 
face  as  a  graver's  tool,  and  plastic  model,  and  copying- 
machine,  and  therewith  faintly  engrave  his  image  with 
reversed  bas-relief  on  the  hillock  ;  his  fingers  likewise 
lay  upon  it  as  busy  graver's  instruments,  and  copied 
themselves  ;  and,  with  the  notary's  seal,  which  he  had 
put  down  near  the  inkstand  and  taken  with  him,  he  ac- 
cidentally countersigned  the  occurrence,  —  so  easily  does 
one  notary,  like  a  count  palatine,  create  a  second.  But 
Börstel  left  the  co-notary,  and  the  whole  lusiis  naturce, 
behind  him,  and,  as  he  walked  home,  thought  of  other 
things.  The  Messieurs  Stiefel  and  Leibgeber,  on  the 
contrary,  after  his  disappearance,  gazed  on  the  second 
outer  man,  which  lay  extended  on  the  anatomical  stage 
below  them,  smelling  of  muscovy  leather,  —  whereupon 
the  author  will  not  add  a  word  of  his  own,  but  simply 
quote  Henry's  observation  :  — 

"  The  land-notary  desired  to  affix  to  the  will  a  larger 
seal,  which  no  one  could  forge,  and  has  therefore  sealed 
it  with  his  body ;  and  down  there  we  behold  the  entire 
sphragistic  impression." 

The  last  will  was  signed  by  the  witnesses  and  the 
testator,  as  far  as  it  went ;  and  more  than  such  a  halt- 
military  testament  could,  under  existing  circumstances, 
scarcely  be  expected. 

The  evening  now  drew  near,  when  the  sick  man,  like 


CHAPTER  XX. 


his  own  earth,  turns  away  from  the  sun,  and  only  directs 
his  gaze  to  the  twilight  evening-star  of  the  next  world, 
i —  when  the  sick  go  to  it,  and  the  healthy  gaze  upon  it. 
And  Firmian  now  hoped  to  give  the  parting  kiss  to  his 
dear  wife,  and  to  sink  gently  to  rest,  when,  unfortunately, 
the  blustering  deacon  and  preacher  Reuel  rustled  into 
the  room.  He  came  in  the  church-uniform,  in  surplice 
and  bands,  in  order  to  reprimand  with  due  severity  the 
invalid,  under  whose  chin  he  had  tied  the  ribbon  of 
marriage  in  double  bows,  for  defrauding  him  of  the  con- 
fession fee,  as  it  appeared  he  intended,  to  make  a  circuit 
in  order  to  avoid  paying  the  communion-toll  on  the  road 
to  heaven  and  hell. 

As  the  ancient  botanists,  Crol,  Porta,  Helvetius,  Fa- 
brizius,  &c,  from  the  resemblance  which  a  plant  bore  to 
an  illness,  inferred  (according  to  Linnagus)  that  it  was 
the  natural  remedy  for  it,  and  therefore  prescribed  yellow 
plants,  such  as  saffron,  curcuma,  for  the  jaundice  ;  drag- 
on's-blood, japan-earth,  for  dysentery ;  a  cabbage  for 
head-ache  ;  pointed  things,  such  as  fish-bones,  for  stitch  ; 
every  specific  thus  resembling,  in  some  remote  degree  at 
least,  the  disease  for  which  it  was  administered,  —  thus, 
too,  in  the  hands  of  efficient  preachers,  do  the  spiritual 
means  of  salvation,  sermons,  exhortations,  &c.  assume 
the  form  of  the  diseases  —  anger,  pride,  avarice — against 
which  they  are  directed ;  so  that  frequently  there  is  no 
other  difference  between  the  bedridden  patient  and  his 
physician  than  that  of  position.  Just  such  an  one  was 
Reuel.  At  a  time  when  people  are  so  willing  to  decry 
the  Lutheran  minister,  and  call  him  a  hidden  Jesuit,  or 
monk,  he  was  especially  zealous  to  distinguish  himself, 
not  merely  by  words  but  by  deeds,  from  the  latter,  who 


- 

256     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

calls  nothing  his  own,  and  is  not  allowed  to  possess  prop- 
erty, and,  therefore,  very  openly  to  hunt  after  and  snap 
at  possessions.  Hoseas  Leibgeber  endeavored  to  make 
himself  a  turnpike-bar  and  turnstile  for  the  preacher, 
and  stopped  him  at  the  threshold  with  the  words,  "  Noth- 
ing that  your  reverence  can  say  will  be  of  any  avail. 
I  myself  tried  yesterday,  volti  subito,  to  convert  and  re- 
stamp  him  citissime  ;  but  it  ended  by  his  upbraiding  me 
with  being  unconverted  myself,  —  and  that  is  true;  for 
whistlers  upon  whistlers  are  perched  and  gnawing  among 
the  summer  rape-seed  of  my  opinions." 

Reuel  replied,  in  a  tone  vibrating  between  flats  and 
sharps,  "  A  servant  of  God  does  the  duty  of  his  holy 
office,  and  seeks  to  save  souls  either  from  atheism  or 
other  deadly  sins  ;  but  the  consequences  rest  with  the 
sinners  themselves." 

The  black'  storm,  charged  with  the  lightnings  of 
Sinai,  consequently  rolled  into  the  dark  chamber.  The 
preacher  swung  his  wide  sleeve  like  a  saving  flag  over 
the  atheist  (as  he  considered  him)  stretched  out  upon 
his  sheet,  and  sowed  the  good  seed  upon  the  patient,  as 
the  peasants  in  Sweden  sow  rape-seed,  by  spitting  it  upon 
the  beds  ;  he  told  him,  in  a  sick-bed  exhortation  (which 
is  usually  the  antipodes  of  a  funeral  oration),  such  as 
may,  perhaps,,  one  day  overtake  me  and  the  reader,  be- 
neath the  last  sheet,  and  which  I  need"  not  therefore 
send  to  press  from  Baireuth  to  Heidelberg,  since  it  may 
be  heard  on  the  way  in  every  sick  man's  bed-chamber,  — 
in  that  discourse,  like  a  straightforward  man,  he  told  him 
plainly  to  his  face  that  he  was  a  devil's  roast,  and  just 
done.  The  done-roast  shut  his  eyes  and  endured  it ; 
but  Henry,  who  was  distressed  that  the  preacher  should 


CHAPTER  XX. 


257 


pinch  the  loved  ears  and  loved  heart  with  his  red-hot 
pincers,  and  who  was  indignant  because  he  knew  that 
his  only  motive  for  so  doing  was  to  frighten  the  sick 
man  into  confession,  caught  hold  of  the  flying  sleeve, 
and  gently  reminded  him  : 

1  "I  thought  it  would  be  unpolite,  Mr.  Preacher,  to 
inform  you  beforehand  that  the  invalid  is  hard  of  hear- 
ing, and  to  urge  you  to  scream.  As  yet  he  has  not 
heard  a  word.  Mr.  Siebenkäs !  who  stands  there  ?  — 
Do  you  see,  how  little  he  hears  ?  Work  at  converting 
me  over  a  glass  of  beer,  that  will  please  me  better ;  and 
I  can  hear  better.  I  fear  he  is  now  somewhat  delirious, 
and  will  take  you  for  the  Devil,  should  he  see  you,  — 
because  it  is  with  him  that  dying  persons  have  to  fight 
their  last  battle.  It  is  a  pity  he  did  not  hear  your  dis- 
course ;  it  would  have  vexed  him  terribly,  for  he  will 
not  confess ;  and  a  sufficient  degree  of  vexation,  accord- 
ing to  Haller,  in  his  eighth  volume  of  Physiology,  has 
often  prolonged  the  life  of  dying  persons  for  weeks. 
Yet  he  is  a  sort  of  true  Christiän,  after  all,  though  he 
was  wont  to  confess  as  seldom  as  an  apostle,  or  a  father 
of  the  church.  After  his  departure  you  shall  learn  from 
me  how  peacefully  the  true  Christian  dies,  Avithout  any 
convulsions,  distortions,  ancfr  agonies  of  death.  He  is 
as  accustomed  to  the  spiritual  as  the  hooded-owl  to  the 
church  towers ;  and  as  these  latter  remain  sitting  on  the 
belfry  in  the  midst  of  the  ringing,  so  I  will  guarantee 
that  our  Advocate  too  will  remain  quite  tranquil  during 
the  tolling  of  the  death-bell,  because  from  your  sermons 
lie  obtained  the  conviction  that  he  would  live  again  after 
death." 

There  was  in  this,  to  say  the  truth,  a  somewhat  hard 

VOL.  II.  Q 


258     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

hit  at  Firmian's  mock-death  and  his  faith  in  immortality, 
—  a  jest  which  only  a  Firmian  could  at  once  understand 
and  forgive.  But  Leibgeber  also  wished  to  attack  in 
earnest  those  persons  who  look  upon  the  accidental  physi- 
cal tranquillity  of  a  dying  man  as  a  certain  proof  of  his 
peace  of  spirit,  and  the  struggles  of  the  body  as  storms  of 
the  conscience. 

The  only  answer  Reuel  returned  was :  "  You  dwell 
with  the  mockers.  The  Lord  will  find  them.  I  have 
washed  my  hands." 

But  as  he  would  rather  have  filled  them,  and  as  he 
could  not  change  the  Devil's  child  into  a  penitent,  he 
went  away  red  and  silent,  humbly  accompanied  down 
stairs  by  Lenette  and  Stiefel,  who  bowed  to  him  re- 
peatedly. 

Let  us  not  deem  the  gall-bladder  of  our  good  Henry, 
which  is  his  swimming  bladder,  and,  alas  !  often  also  his 
ascending  hysterical  ball,  greater  than  it  is,  —  but  let  us 
judge  this  natural  fault  still  more  mildly,  because  Henry 
had  already  seen,  at  so  many  death-beds,  such  spiritual 
freres  terribles,  such  g allow s-pätr es,  who  strew  salt  upon 
the  sick,  withered  heart ;  and  because  he  believed,  as  I  do, 
that,  among  all  the  hours  of  a  man's  life,  the  last  must  be 
the  most  indifferent  in  a  religious  point  of  view,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  the  most  unfruitful,  and  no  seed  can  sprout  in  it 
and  bear  the  fruit  of  deeds. 

During  the  short  absence  of  the  polite  pair,  Firmian 
said,  "  I  am  sick,  sick,  sick  of  it.  I  will  act  no  longer. 
In  ten  minutes  I  will  tell  my  last  lie,  and  die ;  and  would 
to  God  it  were  no  lie  !  Let  no  light  be  brought  in,  and 
cover  me  immediately  with  the  mask  ;  for  I  foresee  that 
I  skill  be  'unable  to  control  my  eyes,  and  beneath  the 


CHAPTER  XX. 


259 


mask  I  can  let  them  overflow  as  much  as  they  please. 
O  Henry !  my  good  friend !  " 

The  chaos  infused  into  Reuel's  exhortations  ■  had  at 
least  made  the  weary  figurant  and  mimic  of  death  serious 
and  soft.  Henry,  in  his  affectionate  solicitude,  relieved 
hiui  of  all  his  lying  parts,  and  took  them  upon  himself ; 
and  he  therefore  called  out  loudly  and  anxiously  as  the 
pair  entered  the  room,  "  Firmian,  how  are  you  ? " 

"  Better,"  he  rejoined,  but  with  a  voice  of  emotion  ; 
"in  the  earthly  night  the  stars  are  shining,  but  I  am  bound 
to  the  clod,  and  cannot  soar  up  to  them.  The  shore  of 
the  beautiful  spring  is  steep,  and  we  swim  on  the  dead  sea 
of  life  so  near  the  shore,  but  the  ephemera  has  no  wings. 
Death,  this  sublime  evening  red  of  our  St.  Thomas's  day, 
this  great  amen  of  our  hope,  shouted  across  from  yonder 
shore,  would  appear  before  our  low  couch,  like  a  beautiful 
crowned  giant,  and  lift  us  up  by  degrees  into  the  ether, 
and  rock  us  there,  were  it  not  that  only  broken,  stupefied 
men  are  thrown  into  his  gigantic  arms.  It  is  -illness  alone 
that  takes  from  death  his  glory  ;  and  the  pinions  of  the 
aspiring  soul,  laden  and  stained  with  blood,  tears,  and 
clumps  of  earth,  trail,  broken,  upon  the  ground  ;  but  death 
is  a  flight  and  no  fall  only  then  when  the  hero  throws 
himself  upon  one  single  fatal  wound,  —  when  man  stands 
there,  like  a  spring  world  full  of  new  blossoms  and  old 
fruit,  and  the  next  world  suddenly  passes  by  him  like  a 
comet,  and  takes  the  little  world,  unwithered,  along  with 
it,  and  flies  with  it  over  the  sun." 

But  this  elevation  of  Firmian  would  to  stronger  eyes 
than  those  of  Stiefel  have  been  a  sign  of  returning 
strength  and  health.  On  the  eye  of  the  spectator,  not  on 
him  who  is  struck  down,  does  the  battle-axe  of  death  cast 


26o    FLOWEE,  FEUIT,  AND  THORN  FIECES. 

a  glimmer.  It  is  with  the  death-bell  as  with  other  bells, 
—  only  he  who  is  afar  off,  and  not  he  who  himself  stands 
within  the  murmuring  hemisphere,  hears  its  elevating 
sounds  and  tones. 

•As  in  the  hour  of  death  every  bosom  becomes  more 
sincere  and  transparent,  like  the  Siberian  glass-apple, 
whose  kernel,  in  the  period  of  its  ripeness,  is  only  covered 
by  a  crystal  case  of  transparent,  sweet  flesh  ;  so  Firmian, 
in  that  dithyrambic  moment,  so  near  the  naked  blade  of 
death's  scythe,  would  have  been  capable  of  offering  up  all 
the  mysteries  and  blossoms  of  his  futurity, — lhat  is,  of 
discovering  them,  —  had  it  not  been  for  his  word  and  his 
friend ;  but  there  was  now  nothing  left  for  him  but  a  pa- 
tient enduring  heart,  silent  lips,  and  weeping  eyes. 

Ah  !  and  was  not  this  apparent  leave-taking  in  very 
truth  a  real  one  ;  and  as  he  drew  his  Henry  and  the 
Schulrath  with  his  trembling  hands  to  his  heart,  was  it 
not  oppressed  by  the  sad  certainty  that  he  would  lose  the 
Schulrath  to-morrow,  and  Henry  in  a  week,  forever. 
The  following  address  was  therefore  the  simple  truth, 
but  a  sad  one  :  — 

"  Alas !  in  a  short  time  we  shall  be  sundered !  0, 
human  arms  are  crumbling  bonds,  and  so  soon  snap  asun- 
der !  Fare  ye  well,  and  better  than  I  ever  deserved  it 
should  fare  with  me.  May  the  chaotic  stone-heap  of  your 
days  never  roll  from  beneath  your  feet  nor  over  your 
heads,. and  may  a  spring  clothe  the  rocks  and  cliffs  around 
you  with  green  and  with  berries  !  Good  night,  forever, 
dear  Schulrath  !  and  thou,  my  Henry  .  .  .  ."  He  pressed 
the  latter  to  his  heart,  and  was  silent  in  the  embrace1, 
thinking  of  the  nearness  of  the  true  parting. 

But  he  should  not  have  thus  feverishly  excited  himself 


CHAPTER  XX. 


by  these  stings  of  parting.  He  heard  his  Lenette  weep- 
ing in  secret  behind  his  bed,  and,  with  a  deep  death- 
wound  in  his  full  heart,  he  said,  "  Come,  my  beloved 
Lenette,  come,  and  take  leave  of  me  !  "  And  he  stretched 
out  his  arms  wildly  to  his  invisible  loved  one.  She  tot- 
tered forwards,  and  sunk  upon  his  bosom,  and  he  was 
speechless  under  the  crushing  weight  of  his  feeling^. 
At  last  he  said  gently  to  his  trembling  wife,  "  Patient, 
•faithful,  tortured  one  !  How  often  have  I  caused  you  sor- 
row !  O  God,  how  often  !  Will  you  forgive  me  ?  will  you 
forget  me  ?  "  (A  convulsion  of  sorrow  drew  her  closer  to 
him.)  "  Yes,  yes,  —  O,  forget  me  quite,  for  you  were 
not  happy  with  me."  Their  sobbing  hearts  suffo- 
cated the  voice,  and  only  their  tears  were  able  to  flow ! 
A  «;reat  sorrow  gnawed  his  wearied  heart,  and  he  re- 
peated, "  No,  no,  with  me,  verily,  you  had  nothing,  noth- 
ing but  tears ;  but  Fate  will  make  you  happy,  when  I 
have  forsaken  you  !  "  He  gave  her  the  last  kiss,  and  said, 
"  O  live  happy,  and  let  me  depart ! " 

She  said  again  and  again,  amid  a  thousand  tears,  "  You 
w'll  certainly  not  die  ! " 

But  he  embraced  her,  and  then  lifted  her  fainting  from 
his  bosom,  and  said,  solemnly,  "It  is  past.  Fate  has 
divided  us.    It  is  past!" 

Henry  led  the  weeping  wife  gently  away,  and  wept 
himself,  and  cursed  his  plan  ;  and  then  making  a  sign  to 
the  Schulrath,  he  said,  "  Firmian  will  now  rest." 

The  latter  turned  his  swollen  face,  distorted  by  agony, 
towards  the  wall.  Lenette  and  the  Schulrath  mourned 
together  in  the  adjoining  room.  Henry  waited  until  the 
heaving  billows  were  allayed,  and  then  inquired  gently, 
"Now?" 


2Ö2    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


Firmian  gave  the  sign,  and  Henry  screamed  out,  dis- 
tractedly, "  O,  he  is  dead  !  "  and  threw  himself  upon  the 
immovable  body,  in  order  to  protect  it  from  examination, 
with  true  hot  tears  which  flowed  like  blood  from  the  near 
wound  of  their  separation.  An  inconsolable  pair  rushed 
from  the  next  room  into  the  bed-chamber.  Lenette 
wanted  to  throw  herself  upon  her  husband,  who  was 
turned  away,  and  exclaimed  in  sorrow,  "  I  must  see  him, 
—  I  must  once  more  take  leave  of  my  husband." 

But  Henry  ordered  the  Schulrath  in  confidence  to 
support  the  afflicted  wife,  and  lead  her  out  of  the  room. 
He  was  able  to  do  the  first,  though  his  own  self-control 
was  but  an  artificial  one,  put  on  in  order  to  prove  the 
victory  of  religion  over  philosophy  ;  but  he  could  not  take 
her  out  of  the  room  when  she  perceived  that  Henry  took 
up  the  mask  of  death. 

"  No,"  she  exclaimed,  angrily,  "  surely  I  may  be  al- 
lowed to  look  at  my  husband  once  more." 

Henry  held  up  the  mask,  gently  turned  the  face  of 
Firmian,  on  which  the  half-dried  tears  of  parting  yet  lin- 
gered, covered  it  with  the  mask,  and  thus  forever  removed 
it  from  the  weeping  eye  of  his  wife.  The  great  scene 
raised  his  heart,  and  he  looked  fixedly  on  the  mask,  and 
said,  "  Such  a  mask  does  death  lay  over  the  faces  of  us 
all.  Thus  shall  I  too,  one  day,  stretch  myself  out  in  the 
midnight  sleep  of  death,  and  grow  longer  and  heavier. 
Thou  poor  Firmian !  Was,  then,  thy  life's  partie  a  la 
guerre  worth  the  candles  and  the  trouble  ?  True,  indeed, 
we  are  not  the  players,  but  only  the  playthings,  and  old 
Death  pushes  our  heads  and  our  hearts,  like  balls  across 
the  green  billiard-table,  into  his  bag,  and  the  little  death- 
bell  rings  whenever  he  has  made  a  stroke.    In  one  sense, 


CHAPTER  XX. 


263 


indeed,  you  continue  to  live,*  supposing  that  the  fresco- 
painting  of  ideas  can  be  taken  without  injury  from  the 
crumbling  wall  of  the  body.f  O,  may  you  be  happier  in 
your  postscript  life  !  But  what  is  it  ?  It  will  also  go  out. 
Every  life  upon  every  sphere  will  one  day  burn  out.  All 
the  planets  have  only  the  license  of  giving  to  drink  on  the 
premises,  and  can  take  in  no  lodgers  ;  but  they  pour  out 
for  us  once,  quince-wine,  currant-juice,  brandy,  but,  for 
the  most  part,  a  cordial  gargle  which  we  cannot  swallow, 
or  even  sympathetic  ink  (i.  e.  liquor  probatorius),  sleep- 
ing-draughts, and  dye-liquid  ;  then  we  travel  on  from  inn 
to  inn,  and  proceed  from  one  millennium  into  the  other. 
0  thou  good  God  !  whither  then,  whither,  whither  ?  How- 
ever, the  earth  was  the  most  miserable  tap,  where,  for 
the  most  part,  only  beggars,  rogues,  and  deserters  stop  to 
drink,  and  where,  if  we  only  go  five  steps  farther,  we  can 
enjoy  the  best  pleasures  either  in  the  memory  or  in  the 
imagination  ;  and  where,  if  we  chew  these  roses  instead 
of  smelling  them,  and  swallow  the  conserve  of  rose-leaves 
instead  of  inhaling  the  fragrance,  we  get  nothing  from  it 
but  .....  sedesj  .... 

"  0,  may  it  fare  better  with  thee,  thou  quiet  one,  in 
other  taverns  than  it  did  here,  and  may  some  restaurateur 
of  life  open  a  wine-cellar  for  you  instead  of  this  cellar  of 
vinegar ! " 

*  Leibgeber  alludes  at  one  and  the  same  time  to  the  next  life,  in 
which  he  is  an  unbeliever,  and  to  Firmian's  continuation  of  the  first  in 
Vaduz. 

t  In  Italy,  large  fresco-paintings  are  removed  uninjured  from  the 
wall. 

X  Rose-leaves  have  an  effect  like  senna  on  the  bowels. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


Dr.  Oelhafen  and  the  Medical,  Chaussure.  —  Mourning  Ad- 
ministration.—  The  Saving  Death's-Head.  —  Frederick  II. 
and  Funereal  Elegy. 

^TjEIB GEBER  first  of  all  quartered  the  sor- 
rowing Lenette  down  below  with  the  barber, 
in  order  to  render  the  intermediate  condition 
U  of  the  dead  man  after  death  more  easy. 
"  You  shall  keep  away  from   the  sight  of  the  sad 
memorials  that  surround  us,"  said  he,  "  until  the  de- 
ceased is  carried  away." 

She  obeyed,  from  fear  of  ghosts  ;  and  he  was  thus 
more  easily  enabled  to  give  the  deceased  something  to 
eat.  He  compared  him  to  a  walled-up  vestal,  who,  as 
Plutarch  mentions  in  his  Numa,  found  in  her  sepulchre 
a  lamp,  bread,  water,  milk,  and  oil,  —  "  If,"  continued  he, 
"  you  do  not  more  nearly  resemble  the  earwig,  which, 
when  it  is  cut  in  two,  turns  round  to  eat  its  own  muti- 
lated half." 

By  such  jokes  he  cheered,  or  at  least  endeavored  to 
cheer,  the  cloudy  and  autumnal  soul  of  his  dear  friend, 
round  whose  eyes  lay  nothing  but  the  ruins  of  his  former 
life,  from  the  clothes  of  the  widowed  Lenette  to  her  work. 
He  was  obliged  to  have  the  cap-block,  which  he  had  struck 
during  the  storm,  removed  into  a  corner  out  of  sight,  be- 
cause, he  said,  it  made  gorgon-faces  at  him. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


265 


On  the  following  day,  the  good  Leibgeber,  the  watcher 
of  the  corpse,  had  the  labors  of  Hercules,  Ixion,  and 
Sisyphus  put  together.  One  congress  and  piquet  after 
the  other  came  to  see  the  dead  man  and  to  eulogize  him, 
—  for  we  only  clap  men  and  actors  when  they  go  away, 
and  find  the  dead  moral,  even  as  Lavater  thinks  their 
physiognomy  beautified ;  —  but  he  drove  the  people  away 
from  the  chamber  of  death.  "  Such  was  the  desire  of  my 
late  friend,"  said  he. 

The  chambermaid  of  death  then  entered,  and  wanted 
to  scrub  and  dress  the  body.  Henry  wrangled  with  her, 
paid  her,  and  dismissed  her.  Moreover,  he  was  obliged 
to  behave  before  the  widow  and  Pelzstiefel  as  if  he 
were  concealing  a  bleeding  heart  beneath  the  cloak  of  an 
outward  resignation.  "  But  I  can  easily  see  through  it," 
said  the  Schulrath  ;  "  and  he  only  affects  the  philosopher 
and  stoic  because  he  is  no  Christian. "  Stiefel  meant  that 
empty  hardness  of  the  Zenos  of  the  world  and  of  the 
court,  who  resemble  the  wooden  figures,  to  which  a  paint- 
ed coat  of  stone-dust  gives  the  appearance  of  stone  statues 
and  pillars. 

Further,  the  share  or  dividend  from  the  burial-fund 
was  raised,  which  had  first  to  be  collected  on  a  plate  from 
the  members  of  the  society :  thereby  the  councillor  of  the 
upper  board  of  health,  Oelhafen,  as  paying  member,  be- 
came acquainted  with  the  event.  The  latter  took  occa- 
sion on  his  forenoon  round  of  visits  to  his  patients  to 
enter  the  house  of  mourning,  with  the  special  object  of 
vexing  his  brother  in  art,  Leibgeber.  He  therefore  acted 
as  if  no  news  of  the  death  had  come  to  his  ears,  and  first 
inquired  how  the  invalid  was. 

"  According  to  the  latest  bulletin,"  said  Henry,  "  he 

VOL.  II.  12 


266     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


is  —  at  an  end.  He  has  gone  to  sleep  in  peace,  Mr. 
Protomedicus  Oelhafen.  In  August,  March,  and  Septem- 
ber, Death  has  his  press-gang,  his  vintage." 

"  The  cooling  draught/'  answered  the  revengeful  phy- 
sician, "  has  it  seems  sufficiently  tempered  the  heat,  since 
he  is  cold? 

Leibgeber  was  pained,  and  he  said,  "  Alas,  alas  !  how- 
ever, we  did  what  we  could,  and  got  him  to  swallow 
your  emetic ;  but  he  brought  up  nothing,  save  the  worst 
diseased  matter  of  man,  the  soul.  You,  Mr.  Protomed- 
icus, are,  so  to  say,  a  judge  of  the  criminal  court  of 
judicature,  and  are  invested  with  power  over  life  and 
death,  —  but  as  I,  in  my  character  of  advocate,  only 
exercise  the  lower  jurisdiction.  I  did  not  dare  risk  any- 
thing, least  of  all  the  man's  life,  or  what  a  face  he  would 
have  made  at  it !  " 

"  Well,  and  he  has  made  one  at  it,  and  a  long  one 
too,  —  the  hippocratic  face,"  replied  the  physician,  not 
without  humor. 

u  I  must  believe  you,"  answered  the  other,  mildly, 
"  since,  as  a  layman,  I  seldom  happen  to  see  such  faces, 
but  physicians  can  daily  study  the  hippocratic  science  of 
physiognomy  upon  their  patients ;  and,  indeed,  the  ex- 
perienced physician  is  distinguished  by  a  certain  sharp- 
sighted  sagacity  which  enables  him  to  foretell  the  death 
of  his  patients  ;  a  thing  that  is  quite  impossible  to  such 
as  are  not  masters  of  the  healing  art,  and  have  not  seen 
many  die." 

"  As  such  an  excellent  connoisseur  of  the  art,"  asked 
Oelhafen,  "  you  naturally  applied  mustard-plasters  to 
the  feet  of  the  patient,  —  only,  of  course,  they  would  not 
draw  ?  " 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


267 


"  I  did  stumble  on  the  happy  thought  of  soling  the 
feet  of  the  invalid  with  mustard  and  leaven  according 
to  the  rules  of  art,  and  of  putting  a  tapestry  of  blisters 
on  his  calves,  —  but  the  patient,  who,  as  you  are  aware, 
was  always  a  mocking  humorist,  called  such  things  the 
medical  shoeing,  and  us  physicians  death's  shoemakers, 
who  apply  to  the  unfortunate  patient,  after  Nature  has 
already  cried  out,  *  Beware  !  head  off  ! '  Spanish-flies  for 
Spanish-boots,  mustard-plasters  for  cothurni,  cupping- 
glasses  for  fetters  ;  as  if  without  this  medical  toilette, 
and  without  red  shoe-heels  of  mustard,  and  red  cardinal- 
stockings  of  blisters,  a  man  could  not  enter  the  next 
world.  Thereupon  my  late  friend  kicked  with  his  heels 
against  my  face  and  the  plaster,  and  compared  us  artists 
to  stinging  flies,  which  always  attack  the  legs." 

"  He  is  probably  right  about  the  stinging-fly,  so  far 
as  regards  yourself ;  a  shoemaker  of  death  might  also 
take  the  measure  of  something  for  your  head,  —  caput 
tribus  insanibile"  —  retorted  the  doctor  ;  and  he  went 
away  in  haste.  I  have  mentioned,  in  a  former  place, 
something  about  his  emetics  ;  to  which  I  will  now  add, 
that  if  he  really  kills  his  patients  by  them,  the  difference 
between  him  and  a  fox  is,  that  the  latter,  according  to 
the  ancient  naturalists,  simulates  from  afar  the  sound  of 
a  man  vomiting,  in  order  to  lure  the  dogs  and  attack 
them.  Nevertheless,  the  greatest  friends  of  physicians 
Must  acknowledge  certain  limitations  to  their  penal  ju- 
dicature or  royal  decree  of  excommunication.  As,  ac- 
cording to  the  European  law  of  nations,  no  army  may 
fire  upon  another  with  glass  or  poisoned  bullets,  but  only 
with  leaden  ones ;  as,  moreover,  no  one  is  allowed  to 
throw  poison  among  the  provisions,  or  into  the  fountains 


268     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

of  the  enemy,  but  only  dirt ;  so  also  the  medical  police 
permits  a  physician,  practising  the  higher  branch  of  ju- 
dicature, to  administer  freely  narcotica,  drastica,  emetica, 
diuretica,  and  the  whole  pharmacopoeia,  and  it  would  be 
against  the  police-regulations  if  he  were  to  be  in  the 
least  impeded  ;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  first  medi- 
cus  of  city  or  country  should  venture,  in  the  circle  of 
his  jurisdiction,  to  administer  poison-balls  instead  of  pills, 
ratsbane  powders  instead  of  violent  emetic  powders  (un- 
less it  be  for  the  ague  alone  that  he  prescribes  the  mouse- 
poison),  it  would  be  considered  a  very  serious  matter  by 
the  upper  courts  of  justice  ;  indeed,  I  believe  that  even  a 
whole  medical  college  would  not  be  exempt  from  inquiry 
if  any  member  happened  to  pierce  a  man,  whose  veins 
he  was  free  to  open  at  any  hour  with  the  lancet,  in 
lieu  thereof  with  a  sword,  and  to  transfix  him  with  a 
weapon  which  might  be  an  instrument  of  war  and  not 
a  surgical  instrument.  Thus  in  the  criminal  acts  we  find 
that  physicians  did  not  escape  who  threw  a  man  from 
a  bridge  into  the  water,  instead  of  into  a  smaller  mineral 
or  other  bath. 

As  soon  as  the  friseur  had  heard  of  the  arrival  of 
the  money  from  the  burial-fund  into  the  harbor  of  safety, 
he  came  up-stairs  and  offered  to  make  some  curls  and 
a  pigtail  for  his  dead  tenant,  and  leave  the  comb  and 
pomatum  to  accompany  him  under-ground.  Leibgeber 
'  was  obliged  to  economize  for  the  poor  widow,  who,  as  it 
was,  was  already  half  plucked  by  so  many  tearing-pincers, 
eagle-claws,  and  fangs  of  the  servants  of  the  dead  ;  and 
he  said  that  he  could  not  purchase  anything  from  him 
but  the  comb  to  stick  into  the  dead  man's  waistcoat- 
pocket  :  he  could  then  make  his  hair-toilette  with  it, 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


269 


according  to  his  own  pleasure.  He  said  the  same  thing 
to  the  barber,  adding,  that  in  the  grave,  where,  as  is  well 
known,  the. hair  continues  to  grow,  the  whole  secret  and 
fruit-bearing  society  wore  beautiful  beards,  like  Swiss 
of  sixty  years  old.  The  two  hair  co-operators,  who 
revolve  round  the  male  sphere  like  two  satellites  of 
Uranus,  took  themselves  off,  with  clipped  hopes  and 
lengthened  faces  and  purses  ;  and  the  one,  in  his  grati- 
tude, wished  he  had  to  shave  the  undertaker  Henry,  and 
the  other  that  he  had  to  dress  his  hair.  They  grumbled 
upon  the  stairs  :  "  It  would  be  no  wonder  if  the  dead  man 
were  not  to  rest  quietly  in  his  grave,  but  were  to  go  about 
and  frighten  the  people." 

Leibgeber  thought  of  the  risk  he  incurred  of  losing 
the  fruit  of  all  this  long  deception,  should  any  one  by 
chance  desire  to  take  a  peep  at  the  late  gentleman  while 
he  was  in  the  next  room  ;  for  he  locked  the  door  when- 
ever he  absented  himself  for  a  longer  time.  He  there- 
fore went  to  the  churchyard  and  took  a  skull  out  of  the 
charnel-house,  which  he  hid  beneath  his  coat.  He  gave 
it  to  the  Advocate,  and  said  to  him,  that  if  the  head 
were  pushed  under  the  green  lattice-bed  in  which  defunc- 
tus  lay,  and  were  made  to  communicate  with  his  hand 
by  a  green  silk  thread,  it  might,  at  least  in  the  dark,  be 
drawn  forward  as  a  Belidor's  globe  of  compression,  or 
used  as  an  ass's  jawbone  against  the  Philistines,  who 
were  to  be  frightened  away  should  they  attempt  to  dis- 
turb the  repose  of  the  warm  dead. 

To  be  sure,  in  case  of  extreme  need,  Siebenkäs 
would  have  wakened  out  of  his  long  trance,  and  re- 
peated the  stroke  for  the  third  time,  thereby  conferring 
a  great  favor  on  the  medical  system ;  however,  the 


270    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

skull  was  preferable  to  the  stroke.  Firmian  was  affected 
with  melancholy  at  sight  of  this  attic  of  the  soul,  this 
cold,  spiritual  breeding-stove,  and  said:  "The  wall-finch* 
finds,  doubtless,  a  softer  and  more  tranquil  nest  in  it 
than  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  bird  of  paradise  which  has 
flown  out." 

Leibgeber  now  bargained  with  the  servants  of  the 
church  and  school.  He  paid  the  fees,  the  bridge-toll, 
&c,  with  muttered  curses,  and  said :  "  The  day  after 
to-morrow  we  will  lay  the  late  Advocate  to  rest  quite 
quietly,  and  without  any  pomp  or  ceremony." 

No  one  had  any  concern  with  it  except  what  each 
was  very  willing  to  do,  —  that  is,  pocket  the  carriage? 
money  with  which  corpses  are  franked  into  the  next 
world  ;  all  except  one  old  and  poor  servant  of  the  church, 
who  said  he  thought  it  a  sin  to  take  a  farthing  from  the 
poor  widow,  for  he  knew  what  poverty  was,  but  it  was 
just  that  which  the  rich  could  not  know. 

In  the  evening,  Henry  went  down  to  Lenette  and 
the  hair-dresser,  and  left  the  key  in  the  door,  because 
the  tenants  who  dwelt  in  the  upper  story  were  much 
too  timid,  since  the  ghost-report,  even  to  stick  their 
heads  out  of  their  own  doors. 

The  hair-curler,  who  was  still  angry  that  he  had  not 
been  allowed  to  curl  the  hair  of  the  deceased,  bethought 
himself  that  it  would  at  least  be  something  if  he  sneaked 
ap-stairs  and  cleared  away  the  whole  forest  of  hair. 
The  consumption  of  hair  and  fire-wood  is  greater  than 
their  supply  by  growth.  No  dead  person,  therefore, 
should  be  allowed  either  to  have  a  coffin  or  to  keep  his 
own  hair,  which  even  the  ancients  cut  off  for  the  altar  of 

*  This  bird,  like  a  greater  Psyche,  makes  his  nest  in  skulls. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


27I 


the  subterranean  gods.  Merbitzer  consequently  sneaked 
into  the  room  on  tiptoe,  and  already  held  open  the  jaws 
of  the  scissors. 

Siebenkäs  easily  squinted  into  the  chamber  through 
the  eye-holes  of  the  mask  ;  and  from  the  scissors,  and 
the  trade  of  the  landlord,  he  readity  guessed  the  threat- 
ened misfortune  and  Pope's  "  Rape  of  the  Lock."  He 
perceived  that  in  this  extremity  he  could  count  less 
upon  his  own  head  than  upon  the  bald  one  beneath 
the  bed.  The  landlord,  who  in  his  timidity  had  left 
the  door  open  behind  him,  ready  for  a  retreat,  at  last 
approached  the  plantation  of  human  flower-pot  plants, 
with  intent  to  act  as  reaper  in  this  harvest-month,  and, 
combining  the  parts  of  shaver  and  hair-dresser,  revenge 
them  both.  Siebenkäs  wound  the  thread  upon  his  cov- 
ered fingers  as  well  as  he  could,  in  order  to  draw  up 
the  skull ;  but  as  this  proceeded  much  too  slowly,  —  Mer- 
bitzer, on  the  contrary,  much  too  expeditiously,  —  he  was 
obliged  to  help  himself  in  the  mean  time  by  blowing  out 
of  the  mouth-opening  of  the  mask  a  long  night-wind 
upon  the  landlord,  especially  as  evil  spirits  so  often 
breathe  upon  men.  Merbitzer  could  not  explain  to 
himself  this  dubious  draught,  which  blew  real  mephitic 
gas  and  a  deadly  simoom  wind  upon  him,  and  his  warm 
component  elements  began  to  freeze  up  to  ice  ;  but  the 
deceased  unluckily  had  soon  shot  away  his  breath,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  reload  the  air-gun  slowly.  This  truce 
brought  the  lock-robber  to  himself,  and  set  him  on  his 
legs  again,  so  that  he  once  more  prepared  to  seize  hold 
of  the  tassel  of  the  night-cap,  and  to  pull  off  this  thin 
flying  gossamer,  the  cap,  from  the  field  of  hair.  But 
just  as  he  was  seizing  it,  he  heard  a  noise  as  if  some- 


272     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


thing  were  moving  underneath  the  bed  ;'  he  stopped, 
and  waited  calmly,  since  it  might  be  a  rat,  to  see  what 
the  noise  would  resolve  itself  into.  But  whilst  he  was 
wailing,  he  suddenly  felt  something  round  rolling  up 
his  legs,  and  that  it  was  creeping  further  every  moment. 
He  immediately  put  down  his  empty  hand,  for  the  other 
held  the  open  scissors,  and,  powerless  as  callipers,  it 
met  the  up-rolling  slippery  ball,  which  seemed  endeav- 
oring to  creep  upon  it.  Merbitzer  became  stiff  in  the 
legs,  and  his  blood  curdled  ;  but  another  touch  with  the 
hand,  and  a  glance  at  the  approaching  head,  gave  him, 
before  he  became  quite  curdled  into  cheese,  such  a  kick 
of  terror,  that  he  was  driven  across  the  threshold  like 
a  cannon-ball  shot  straight  at  the  mark  by  the  powder 
of  fear.  He  tumbled  into  the  room  below  with  open 
scissors  in  his  hand,  with  open  mouth  and  eyes,  and  a 
pallid  spot  upon  his  face,  compared  with  which  his  linen 
and  his  powder  were  court-mourning.  Nevertheless,  in 
this  novel  situation,  to  his  honor  be  it  told,  he  had  the 
presence  of  mind  not  to  reveal  a  syllable  of  what  had 
passed,  partly  because  ghost-stories  cannot  be  related 
before  the  ninth  day  without  the  greatest  harm  to  the 
narrator,  partly  because  he  could  not  well  speak  of  his 
intended  piracy  of  hair  on  any  day. 

At  one  o'clock  at  night  Firmian  informed  his  friend 
of  the  whole  transaction,  with  the  same  fidelity  as  I  have 
sought  to  observe  towards  the  reader.  This  was  a  hint 
to  Leibgeber  to  set  a  good  body-guard  before  the  high 
corpse  ;  to  which  office,  in  default  of  chamberlains  and 
court  domestics,  he  could  not  appoint  any  one  else  but 
Saufinder. 

On  the  last  morning,  which  was  to  give  Siebenkäs 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


273 


notice  to  quit,  arrived  the  casa  santa  of  man,  our  chambre 
garnie,  our  last  seed-pod,  —  the  coffin,  for  which  must  be 
paid  whatever  might  be  demanded. 

u  It  is  the  last  building-grant  of  this  life,  the  last  cheat 
of  the  carpenter,"  said  Henry. 

Half  an  hour  past  midnight,  when  neither  bat,  nor 
night-watchman,  nor  beer-toper  from  the  public  house, 
nor  night-light,  was  any  longer  to  be  seen,  and  only  a 
few  field-crickets  were  to  be  heard  in  the  sheaves  and  a 
few  mice  in  the  houses,  Leibgeber  said  to  his  sad  and 
anxious  beloved  friend  : 

"  Now  march  !  As  it  is,  since  you  have  put  off  the 
mortal  and  entered  into  eternity,  you  have  not  been  a 
single  moment  happy  or  cheerful.  I  will  provide  for 
the  rest.  Wait  for  me  at  Hof,  on  the  Saale.  We  must 
meet  once  more  after  death." 

Firmian  fell  upon  his  warm  face  in  silence,  and 
wept.  Once  more  he  went  over,  in  the  twilight  hour, 
all  the  blooming  places  of  the  past,  behind  which  he 
sank,  as  into  a  grave  :  his  softened  heart  loved  to  deposit 
the  last  tears  upon  every  piece  of  dress  belonging  to  his 
sorrowing,  bereaved  Lenette,  upon  every  piece  of  work 
and  trace  of  her  domestic  hand.  He  pressed  her  be- 
trothal-garland of  roses  and  forget-me-not  hard  upon 
his  burning  bosom,  and  placed  the  rose-buds  of  Natalie 
in  his  pocket ;  and  thus  mute,  oppressed  with  stifled 
sobs,  and  cast  out,  as  it  were,  by  an  earthquake  from 
the  earth  upon  the  icy  coast  of  a  strange  world,  he  crept 
down  the  stairs  behind  his  best  friend,  squeezed  his  help- 
ing hand  once  more,  at  the  threshold  of  the  house,  and 
Night  soon  enveloped  him  in  the  grave  of  her  giant 
shadow.     Leihgeber  wept  bitterly  when  he  was  gone. 

VOL.  II.  12  *  R 


274    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

Drops  fell  upon  every  stone  which  he  collected,  and 
upon  the  old  block,  which  he  caught  up  in  his  arms, 
to  embed  in  the  coffin-shell,  in  order  to  give  it  the 
weight  of  a  corpse.  He  filled  the  haven  of  our  bodies, 
closed  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  suspended  the  key 
of  the  coffin,  like  a  black  cross,  upon  his  bosom.  Now, 
for  the  first  time,  he  slept  tranquilly  in  the  house  of 
mourning.    All  was  done. 

On  the  morrow,  he  made  no  secret  of  it' before  the 
bearers  and  Lenette,  that  the  preceding  evening,  with 
great  effort,  he  had  succeeded  in  lifting  the  corpse  with 
both  arms,  and  placing  it  in  the  coffin.  She  desired  to 
look  once  more  upon  the  body  of  her  late  lord,  but 
Henry  had  lost  the  house-door  key  of  the  painted  abode 
in  the  darkness.  He  helped  to  search  diligently  for  it 
(while  all  the  time  he  carried  it  about  him)  ;  but  it  wan 
quite  in  vain  ;  and  many  of  the  by-standers  soon  guessed 
that  Henry  was  only  deceiving,  and  desired  to  spare  the 
weeping  eyes  of  the  widow  any  further  sight  of  the 
accumulated  matter  of  sorrow. 

They  went  forth,  with  the  mock  passenger  in  the 
quasi-coffin,  to  the  churchyard,  which  glistened  in  dew 
beneath  the  clear  blue  sky.  In  Henry's  heart  there 
crept  an  icy-cold  feeling,  on  reading  the  inscription  on 
the  gravestone.  It  had  been  lifted  off  from  the  Mora- 
vian-like, flat  grave  of  Siebenkäs's  great-grandfath< t, 
and  turned  over,  and  upon  the  smooth  side  shone  the 
newly-engraved  inscription :  "  Stanislaus  Firmian  Sie- 
benkäs,  departed  this  life,  24th  August,  1786."- 

This  had  been  formerly  Henry's  own  name,  and 
upon  the  reverse  side  of  the  monument  stood  his  present 
name,  Leibgeber.    Henry  reflected  that  in  a  few  <l;i\  9, 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


275 


with  his  name  cast  away,  he  would  fall  as  a  little  brook 
into  the  ocean,  and  there  flow  without  shores,  and  melt 
into  other  billows.  It  seemed  to  him,  as  if  he  himself, 
with  his  old  and  new  name,  were  descending  into  the 
tomb  ;  and  he  was  so  oppositely  affected,  that  it  was  as 
if  he  was  wedged  into  the  frozen  stream  of  life,  while 
from  above  a  hot  sun  was  beaming  down  upon  the  ice- 
field, and  he  was  thus  lying  between  glowing  heat  and 
ice.  Add  to  this,  the  old  Schulrath  now  came  running 
up,  with  his  pocket-handkerchief  to  his  nose  and  eyes, 
and  in  stammering  accents  of  sorrow  he  imparted  the 
news  that  had  just  arrived  in  the  imperial  market-town, 
that  the  old  king  of  Prussia  had  died  on  the  seven- 
teenth. 

The  first  movement  that  Leibgeber  made  was  to  look 
up  to  the  morning  sun,  as  if  Frederick's  eye  were  beam- 
ing from  it  morning  fire  over  the  earth.  It  is  easier  to 
be  a  great  king  than  to  be  a  righteous  one ;  easier  to 
be  admired  than  to  be  justified.  A  king  lays  his  little 
finger  on  the  longest  arm  of  the  enormous  lever,  and, 
like  Archimedes,  lifts  with  the  muscles  of  his  fingers 
ships  and  lands  into  the  air ;  but  the  machine  alone  is 
great,  and  the  mechanician,  Fate,  —  not  he  who  uses 
it.  The  voice  of  a  king  re-echoes  in  the  countless 
valleys  around  him,  like  a  thunder-clap,  and  a  mild 
beam,  cast  by  him,  is  reflected  from  the  throne  covered 
with  innumerable  mirrors,  into  a  glowing  condensed 
focus ;  but  Frederick  could  only  be  lowered  by  a  throne, 
because  he  had  to  sit  upon  it ;  and  without  the  confin- 
ing crown,  the  girdle  of  thorns  and  magic  circle  of  the 
'head,  the  latter  would  have  become  larger :  and  happy, 
great  spirit,  still  less,  couldst  thou  become  ;  for,  although 


276     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


thou  hadst  broken  down  the  bastille  and  fortresses  of  the 
low  passions  in  thy  soul,  and  given  to  thy  spirit  what 
Franklin  gave  the  earth,  i.  e.  lightning-conductors,  har- 
monica, and  freedom  ;  although  thou  didst  find  no  king- 
dom so  beautiful,  and  didst  love  to  enlarge  none  so 
well,  as  the  kingdom  of  truth  ;  although  by  the  eunuch's 
philosophy  of  French  encyclopedists  thou  didst  only  let 
eternity,  but  not  (Mvinity,  be  concealed  from  thee,  — 
only  the  belief  in  virtue,  not  the  faith  in  thy  own  ;  yet 
did  thy  loving  bosom  receive  nothing  from  friendship 
and  humanity  but  the  echoes  of  their  sighs,  —  the  flute  ; 
and  thy  spirit,  which,  like  the  mahogany-tree,  often 
broke  asunder  with  its  great  roots  the  rock  upon  which 
it  grew,  in  the  fierce  battle  of  thy  wishes  with  thy 
doubts,  in  the  battle  of  thy  ideal  world  with  the  real 
one,  and  the  one  in  which  thou  didst  believe,  suffered  a 
discord  which  no  mild  faith  in  a  second  softened  to  har- 
mony ;  and  therefore  upon  thy  throne  there  was  no  place 
of  rest,  and  there  was  none  for  thee  but  that  which 
thou  now  hast. 

Some  men  bring  at  once  the  whole  of  humanity  be- 
fore our  eyes,  as  certain  events  bring  our  whole  life 
before  us.  Upon  Henry's  breast  fell  strong  splinters  of 
the  mountain,  whose  fall  he  heard. 

He  placed  himself  before  the  open  grave,  and  de- 
livered this  speech,  more  to  invisible  than  to  visible 
hearers :  — 

"  The  epitaph  on  the  grave  is,  then,  the  versio  in- 
tcrli/iearis  of  our  so  small-printed  life?  There  is  no 
rest  for  the  heart  until  it  is  set  in  gold,*  like  the  head. 
Thou  hidden  Infinite  One  !   make  the  grave  for  me  the 

*  A  king's  heart  is  enshrined  in  a  golden  case. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


277 


prompter's  hole,  and  tell  me  what  I  am  to  think  of  the 
whole  theatre !  Indeed,  what  is  there  in  the  grave  ?  A 
little  ashes,  a  few  worms,  cold  and  night  ....  by  heav- 
en !  and  above  it,  there  is  also  nothing  better,  except 
that  in  addition  one  feels  it.  Mr.  Schulrath,  Time  sits 
behind  us,  and  reads  the  calendar  of  life  so  cursorily, 
and  turns  pver  one  month  after  the  other  so  quickly, 
that  I  can  picture  to  myself  this  grave,  this  moat  here 
around  our  castles  in  the  air,  this  fortress-dike,  length- 
ened and  extending  up  to  my  bed,  and  that  I  am  shaken 
out  of  the  sheet  into  this  cooking-hole,  as  Spanish-flies 
are  shaken  down  and  collected.  £  Go  on,'  I  would  say, 
*  go  on.'  I  shall  either  come  to  old  Fred,  or  his  worms, 
and  therewith  basta  /  By  heaven,  one  is  ashamed  of 
life,  when  the  greatest  men  no  longer  possess  it,  —  and 


so  hallo  !  " 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


Journey  through  Fantaisie.  —  Reunion  upon  the  Bindlociier 
Mountain.  —  Bernbck.  —  Man-doubling.  —  Gefrees.  —  Ex- 
change of  Clothes.  —  Münchberg.  —  Pfeifstück.  —  Hof.  — 
The  Stone  of  Gladness,  and  Double  Parting  in  Topen. 

ENRY  now  moved  more  wings  than  a  sera- 
phim, that  he  might  the  sooner  be  able  to  fly- 
after  his  friend.  He  hastily  packed  up  his 
writings,  and  addressed  them  to  Vaduz.  The 
sealed  testament  of  the  public  notary  was  delivered  over 
to  the  local  authorities.  The  certificate  of  death  was 
drawn  up  by  the  latter,  in  order  that  the  Prussian 
Widow's  Provident  Fund  Society  might  see  that  it 
was  not  defrauded ;  and  he  then  pushed  off,  after  hav- 
ing bestowed  some  weighty  grounds  of  consolation  and 
some  weighty  ducats  on  the  mock  widow,  who  mourned 
in  her  striped  calico  gown,  as  was  proper  and  becoming. 

Let  us  now  —  earlier  than  he  did  himself  —  overtake 
and  accompany  his  deceased  friend.  In  the  first  hour 
of  his  night-walk,  confused  images  of  the  past  and  fu- 
ture struggled  in  Firmian's  heart ;  and  it  seemed  as  if 
for  him  there  was  no  present,  but  that  between  the  past 
and  future  all  was  a  desert.  However,  the  fresh,  rich 
harvest-month  of  August  soon  restored  to  him  his  lost 
life  ;  and  when  the  bright  morning  came,  the  earth  lay 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


279 


spread  out  before  hirn  softly  illumined  by  a  fallen  thun- 
der-storm, which  now  only  cast  more  beautiful  lightning- 
flashes  out  of  the  drops  on  the  ears  of  corn,  as  though 
it  were  silvered  by  the  moon.  It  was  a  new  earth.  He 
was  a  new  man,  who  with  full-fledged  wings  had  broken 
through  the  egg-shell  of  the  coffin.  A  broad,  morass- 
like, overshadowed  wilderness,  in  which  he  had  been 
driven  about  by  a  long,  oppressive  dream,  had  melted 
away,  together  with  the  dream  ;  and  now  that  he  was 
awake,  he  saw  far  into  the  Eden.  Long,  long  had  the 
last  week  especially  stretched  out  the  winding  ways  of 
sorrow,  which  give  to  our  little  life  the  false  appearance 
of  too  much  length  ;  in  the  same  manner  as  by  bendings 
and  windings  we  give  a  deceptive  extension  to  the  short 
paths  of  a  garden.  On  the  other  hand,  his  lighter 
bosom,  relieved  from  its  old  burdens,  was  swelled  by  a 
great  sigh,  half  sadly,  half  joyously.  He  had  gone  too  far 
into  the  Trophonius-cavern  of  the  grave,  and  had  looked 
Death  too  near  in  the  face  ;  and  it  seemed  to  him,  there- 
fore, as  if  the  country-houses,  our  pleasure-chateaux, 
and  vineyards,  were  built  and  laid  out  too  near  the  vol- 
cano of  the  grave-hillock  with  its  crater,  and  that  the 
next  night  would  swallow  them  up.  He  alone  seemed 
to  have  been  saved,  and  to  be  a  man  returned  from  the 
dead :  therefore  every  human  face  he  met  beamed  upon 
him  like  that  of  a  restored  brother.  "  They  are  my 
brethren,  whom  I  left  on  the  earth,"  said  his  heart ;  and 
a  fruitful  love,  warm  as  the  spring,  expanded  all  its  fibres 
and  veins,  and  it  grew  to  every  other  heart,  knitting  it 
.to  its  own  by  tender  yet  firm  ivy-shoots.  But  the  dear- 
est remained  absent  from  him  too  long.  He  therefore 
went  on  very  slowly,  in  order  that  Leibgeber,  of  whom 


28o    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


he  was  in  advance,  both  as  to  the  road  and  time,  might 
overtake  him  before  he  reached  the  town  of  Hof.  A 
hundred  times  on  his  way  he  looked  behind,  almost  in- 
voluntarily, to  see  if  he  were  following  and  had  already 
come  up  with  him,  as  though  it  had  been  possible. 

At  last,  on  a  morning  when  the  world  glistened  from 
the  dew-drop  to  the  silvery  cloud,  he  reached  the  Fan- 
taisie  of  Baireuth.  But  all  around  was  stillness ;  every 
breeze  was  silent,  and  August  had  no  songsters,  either 
in  the  shrubs  or  in  the  air.  It  seemed  to  him  as  if, 
separated  from  mortals,  he  were  wandering  through  a 
second  transfigured  world,  where  the  form  of  his  Natalie 
might  walk  beside  him  with  eyes  of  love  and  words  of 
the  heart,  free  and  unshackled  by  the  fetters  of  earth, 
and  say  to  him  :  "  Here  you  looked  up  thankfully  to  the 
starry  night ;  here  I  gave  you  my  wounded  heart ;  here 
we  pronounced  our  earthly  separation ;  and  here  I  was 
often  alone,  and  pictured  to  myself  the  short  apparition." 

"  But  here,"  said  he  to  himself,  as  he  stood  before 
the  lovely  chateau,  —  "  here  she  wept  for  the  last  time  in 
the  beautiful  valley  on  parting  with  her  earliest  friend." 

Now  again  it  was  she  only  who  was  transfigured, 
and  he  was  abandoned  upon  the  earth,  and  gazed  upon 
her  from  below.  He  felt  that  he  should  see  her  no 
more  in  this  world.  "  But,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  men 
must  love,  even  though  they  do  not  see  each  other." 
His  whole  meagre  future  would  only  be  lighted  by  trans- 
figured pictures  ;  but  as,  according  to  Bonnet,  the  tree 
is  planted  in  the  air  or  heaven,  as  well  as  in  the  earth, 
and  receives  its  nourishment  from  both,  so  is  it  with 
every  true  man  in  general ;  and  so,  too,  Firjnian  lived, 
in  future,  more  even  than  heretofore,  but  with  less  root- 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


281 


branches  of  self  in  the  visible  earth.  The  whole  tree, 
with  its  branches  and  top,  stood  in  the  free  atmosphere, 
and  imbibed  with  its  blossoms  the  air  of  heaven,  where 
he  had  only  one  invisible  male  and  female  friend  to 
refresh  him. 

At  length  the  beautiful  thin  vapor  of  his  dreams  con- 
densed into  fog.  Natalie's  grief  at  his  death  flashed 
before  him  ;  his  loneliness  oppressed  his  heart ;  and  his 
bosom,  made  sore  by  love,  longed  inexpressibly  for  a 
living  being  to  stand  there  and  love  him  heartily ;  but 
this  being  followed,  and  sought  to  overtake  him,  —  his 
Henry. 

"  Mr.  Leibgeber ! "  suddenly  exclaimed  a  voice  behind 
him,  "  stop  a  moment !  I  have  brought  your  pocket- 
handkerchief,  which  I  found  down  below." 

He  looked  round  ;  and  the  same  little  girl  whom  Na- 
talie had  drawn  out  of  the  water  ran  to  meet  him  with  a 
white  pocket-handkerchief.  As  he  still  possessed  his 
own,  and  the  little  one  looked  at  him  with  surprise,  say- 
ing he  had  dropped  it  an  hour  ago  in  the  basin,  but  he 
had  not  then  had  on  such  a  long  coat,  a  gush  of  joy 
streamed  into  his  heart.  Leibgeber  had  arrived,  and  had 
been  below. 

With  hasty  steps,  and  with  the  handkerchief  in  his 
hand,  he  hurried  on  to  Baireuth.  The  handkerchief  was 
moist,  as  if  from  the  weeping  eyes  of  his  friend.  He 
pressed  it  warmly  upon  his  own,  but  he  could  no  longer 
dry  them  with  it,  for  he  pictured  to  himself  how  Henry 
lived  in  solitude,  and  proved  his  own  saying,  "  He  who 
spares  and  puts  armor  upon  his  feelings,  preserves  them 
most  sensitive  ;  even  as  the  most  delicate  and  susceptible 
skin  lies  beneath  the  finger-nails." 


282    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

In  the  hotel  of  the  Sun  he  heard  from  the  head-waiter, 
John,  that  Leibgeber  had  really  arrived,  and  had  left 
again  half  an  hour  ago.  Right  and  left,  blind  and  deaf, 
Firmian  hastened  after  him  on  the  road  to  Hof,  in  such  a 
tempestuous  pursuit  of  his  friend  that  even  the  wet  hand- 
kerchief ceased  to  occupy  his  thoughts.  It  was  late  ere 
he  beheld  him  ascending  the  long  hill  behind  the  village 
of  Bindloch,  —  a  mountain-road,  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word,  upon  which  no  haste  could  be  made,  either  up  or 
down. 

Leibgeber  labored  up  as  fast  as  he  was  able,  that  he 
might  overtake  the  Advocate  unexpectedly  before  he  ar- 
rived at  Hof,  perhaps  in  Münchberg,  or  in  Gefrees,  if 
not  possibly  in  Berneck,  which  is  only  a  few  post-leagues 
distant  from  Baireuth. 

But  was  not  all  to  be  ten  times  better  ?  Did  not 
Siebenkäs,  when  he  was  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  be- 
hold him  at  last  not  far  from  the  plain  at  the  summit,  and 
call  out  his  name,  though  he  heard  it  not  ?  Did  he  not 
run  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  the  handkerchief  in  his- 
hand,  after  his  slow,  mountain-tired  friend  ?  And  did  not 
the  latter,  on  arriving  at  the  top,  turn  round  by  chance  to 
gaze  over  the  sunny  landscape,  and  thence  behold  the 
whole  of  Baireuth,  and  at  length  his  pursuing  friend  ? 
And  did  they  not  then  rush  against  one  another,  the  one 
up-hill,  the  other  down-hill,  not  like  two  hostile  armies, 
but  like  two  wreathed,  sparkling  cups  of  joy  and  friend- 
ship. 

Henry  soon  perceived  that  many  harsh  and  melting 
thoughts  —  time  past  and  future  —  were  struggling  to- 
gether in  the  bosom  of  his  friend.  He  therefore  sought 
to  appease  and  reconcile  all  the  naiads  of  the  tear-waves. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


283 


"  Everything  went  off  divinely,  and  every  one  was  well  in 
health,"  said  he.  "  Now  you  are  as  free  as  I  am  :  your 
chains  are  knocked  off ;  the  world  is  open  before  you  ; 
jump  into  it,  then,  fresh  and  merrily,  like  me,  and,  for  the 
first  time  in  your  life,  begin  really  to  live." 

"  You  are  right !  "  said  Firmian.  "  I  enjoy  a  meeting 
like  that  after  death  !  Serene,  still,  and  warm  reposes  the 
heaven  above  us." 

He  had,  therefore,  not  the  courage  to  ask  after  those 
he  had  left  behind  him,  especially  the  widow.  Leibgeber 
expressed  great  joy  that  he  had  already  overtaken  him 
four  posts  on  this  side  of  Hof,  which  was  the  more  agree- 
able to  him  since  they  could  now  accompany  each  other 
a  good  while  ere  they  were  obliged  to  part  in  Hof.  This 
was  said  merely  that  he  might  introduce  the  parting, 
which  was  what  he  wanted  to  impress  on  the  mind  of  his 
friend. 

Now,  in  order  to  divert  any  expression  of  their  mutual 
emotion,  he  began  his  jests  upon  the  dying  scenes,  which 
continued,  like  mile-stones  or  heaps  of  stones,  all  along 
the  road  to  Hof,  and  which  we  must  all  take  along  with 
us  on  this  journey,  if  we  will  not  turn  back.  He  asked 
him  whether  the  diet,  which  he  had  given  him  in  imita- 
tion of  that  which  the  old  Germans,  Romans,  and  Egyp- 
tians gave  their  dead,  had  been  sufficient.  He  confessed 
Firmian  must  be  very  pious,  since  scarcely  had  he  put  off 
the  mortal  before  he  arose  from  the  dead ;  thereby  con- 
firming Lavater's  doctrine  of  two  resurrections,  —  an  ear- 
lier one  for  the  pious,  and  a  later  one  for  the  godless. 
"  You  could  not  have  had  a  better  Archimimus  after  your 
death*  than  myself;  and  every  fly  which  I  saw  run 

*  The  Roman  actor  who,  at  the  funeral,  mimicked  the  dead  man  by 
his  gestures. 


284    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


about  upon  your  hand  was,  in  my  eyes,  an  apologist  of 
the  Romans,  who  plainly  perceived  that  the  creature  had 
no  business  on  the  hand,  and  therefore  posted  a  boy  with 
a  fly-whisk  before  every  corpse,  —  a  practice  which  I 
sinfully  omitted." 

Leibgebcr's  spirit  and  body  leaped  rather  than  walked. 
"  I  am  cheerful  and  free,"  said  he,  "  as  long  as  I  am  out 
of  doors  :  beneath  the  clouds  I  have  no  clouds.  In  youth 
the  north-wind  of  life  only  blows  upon  one's  back  ;  and,  by 
heaven,  !  I  am  younger  than  a  reviewer." 

In  Berneck  they  passed  the  night  between  the  lofty 
bridge-piers  of  mountains,  between  which  formerly  flowed 
the  seas  which  have  overspread  our  sphere  with  fields. 
Grand  and  almighty  reposed  Time  and  Nature  beside 
one  another  upon  the  confines  of  their  two  kingdoms. 
Between  steep,  lofty,  monumental  •  columns  of  creation, 
between  firm,  solid  mountains,  the  empty  mountain-castles 
crumbled  into  ruin  ;  and  masses  of  rock  and  blocks  of 
stone»lay  strewn  about  the  round  green  hills,  as  it  were  the 
broken  tablets  of  the  law  of  the  first  formation  of  the  earth. 

"  The  clergy  from  hence  to  Vaduz,"  said  Henry,  on 
his  entrance,  "  must  not  know  that  you  have  exchanged 
the  temporal  for  the  eternal,  else  they  will  demand  the 
dues  from  you  which  every  corpse  has  to  pay  in  every 
parish  through  which  it  passes.  If  we  were  in  ancient 
Borne,  and  not  in  Berneck,"  added  he,  "  before  the  inn, 
the  landlord  would  not  allow  you  to  enter  the  house  in 
any  other  way  than  through  the  chimney  ;  and  if  it  were 
in  Athens,  you  would  only  need  to  creep  through  a  hoop- 
petticoat,  the  same  as  if  you  wished  to  enter  a  spiritual 
office."* 

*  Those  who  had  been  held  for  dead,  and,  as  such,  honored  with  a 
burial,  had  to  submit  to  both  ceremonies.    Potter's  Archaeology. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


285 


When  he  was  in  such  a  full  flow  of  humor,  he  could 
never  cease,  which  distinguished  him,  to  his  disadvantage, 
from  myself;  and  he  said  it  was  with  metaphors  and 
similes  as  with  gold  pieces,  of  which,  Rousseau  asserts, 
it  is  more  difficult  to  gain  the  first  than  the  following 
thousand. 

In  the  evening  it  was  out  of  his  power  not  to  have  a 
conceit,  when  he  beheld  the  Advocate  cutting  his  nails. 
"  I  cannot  understand,"  said  he,  "  now  that  I  see  you  do 
it,  why  Catherine  Vieri,  whose  nails  had  to  be  pared  off 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  her  death,  could  not 
have  performed  the  operation  herself  as  well  as  you,  now 
that  you  have  given  up  the  ghost."  And  when  he  saw 
him  turn  on  his  left  side  in  bed,  he  merely  observed,  that 
the  Advocate  of  the  Poor  made  his  bed  rise  and  fall  in  the 
same  way  as  John  the  Evangelist  moves  his  bed  of  earth, 
the  grave,  even  up  to  the  present  hour.* 

On  the  morrow  a  little  rain  fell  upon  these  flowers  of 
humor.  As  Leibgeber  was  washing  his  lion-haired  breast 
with  cold  water,  the  Advocate  had  seen  him  put  aside  a 
little  key,  and  asked  to  what  it  belonged. 

"  It  unlocks  nothing,"  said  he  ;  u  but  it  has  locked  the 
plombe  cenotaphiumr  f 

Firmian  was  obliged  to  lean  out  of  the  window,  and  dry 
his  eyes  unobserved.  He  then  said  :  "  Give  me  the  key  : 
it  is  the  waxen  impression  of  a  future  one.  I  will  make 
it  the  tuning-key  of  my  inner  tones,  and  will  hang  it  up 
and  look  at  it  daily  ;  and  when,  perchance,  my  resolution 

*  Augustin,  Commentar.  ad  Johan.  xxi.  23. 

f  Thus,  or  tumulus  lionorarius,  was  called  the  empty  monument, 
which  friends  erected  to  the  memory  of  a  dead  person  whose  body 
could  not  be  found. 


286 


FLOWER, 


FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 


to  improve  shall  have  run  down,  I  will  wind  it  up  again 
•    with  this  watch-key." 

He  obtained  it.  Hereupon  Leibgeber  happened  to 
look  into  the  mirror.  "  It  almost  seems  as  if  I  beheld 
myself  double,  if  not  treble,"  said  he  :  "  one  of  me  must 
have  died,  —  the  one  there  within,  or  the  one  outside. 
Which  of  us,  then,  in  this  room,  is  dead,  and  appears 
afterwards  to  the  other  ?  or  do  we  only  appear  to  our- 
selves ?  Eh !  you  my  three  I's,  what  do  you  say  to  the 
fourth  ?  "  demanded  he  ;  and  turning  to  their  two  images 
in  the  mirror,  and  then  to  Firmian,  he  said,  "  Here  am 
I  too." 

There  was  something  terrible  for  the  future*  in  these 
words ;  and  Firmian,  whose  cooler  understanding,  in  the 
midst  of  his  emotion,  made  him  fear  the  dangerous  growth 
of  this  metamorphosing  self-reflection  in  the  solitude  of 
travel,  said,  with  tender  anxiety  :  "  Dear  Henry,  if  upon 
your  eternal  journeys  you  always  remain  in  future  so 
lonely,  I  fear  it  will  injure  you.  Even  God  himself  is 
not  alone,  but  beholds  his  universe." 

"  I  can  always  be  treble,"  answered  he,  strangely 
moved  by  the  coffin-key,  "  even  in  the  greatest  solitude, 
not  to  take  into  account  the  universe  " ;  and  he  stept  be- 
fore the  mirror,  and  pressed  his  eyeball  aside  with  his 
forefinger,  so  that  he  could  see  a  twofold  image  of  himself. 
"  But  you,  indeed,  cannot  see  the  third  person  in  there. 
However,"  continued  he,  somewhat  more  cheerfully,  in 
order  to  dissipate  the  clouds  from  his  friend,  who  was 
little  comforted  by  his  last  speech,  and  he  led  him,  at  the 
same  time,  to  the  window,  —  "it  is  still  better  in  the 

*  In  another  novel  of  the  author,  Titan,  Leibgeber  becomes  de- 
ranged. —  Tk. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


287 


Street  below  ;  and  I  there  have  much  more  company.  I. 
put  my  forefinger  to  my  eyeball,  and  I  have  immediately 
the  twin  of  every  one,  whosoever  he  may  be,  and  a 
double  edition  of  every  landlord,  as  well  as  of  his  chalk. 
No  president  walks  to  the  assembly  to  whom  I  do  not 
give  his  orang-outang,  and  they  go  before  me  tete-a-tete. 
If  a  genius  wants  an  imitator,  I  take  my  forefinger,  and  a 
living  fac-simile  is  created  on  the  spot.  With  every  co- 
operator  works  a  co-operator,  —  adjunct  professors  are 
adjoined  to  adjunct  professors,  —  duplicates  are  given  to 
only  sons  ;  for,  as  you  see,  I  carry  my  plastic  nature,  my 
stamen,  my  moulding  instrument,  the  forefinger,  with  me ; 
and  I  seldom  let  a  solo-dancer  caper  otherwise  than  with 
four  legs,  so  that  he  must  dangle  in  the  air  as  a  pair  of 
men.  But. you  cannot  conceive  how  much  I  gain  by  thus 
grouping  a  single  fellow  and  his  limbs.  Consider,  lastly, 
the  increase  of  the  multitude,  when  I  double  the  number 
of  all  who  attend  funeral  processions,  —  strengthen  every 
regiment  by  a  regiment  of  flugelmen,  who  all  imitate  each 
other's  motions,  —  for,  as  I  have'  said,  like  a  grasshopper, 
I  have  the  egg-depositing  trunk  always  along  with  me,  — 
the  finger.  From  all  this,  Firmian,  you  may  draw  the 
consolatory  conclusion,  that  I  enjoy  more  society  than  any 
of  you,  namely,  twice  as  much  ;  and  besides,  it  consists  of 
people  who,  aping  themselves  in  all  their  gestures,  afford 
me  a  cheap  delight  by  their  laughable  appearance." 

Hereupon  they  looked  one  another  in  the  face,  but 
full  of  affectionate  sympathy,  and  without  any  unpleas- 
ant feeling  left  by  the  preceding  wild  mode  of  jesting. 
A  third  person  would  have  been  frightened*  at  their  re- 
semblance in  this  hour,  as  each  was  the  plaster-of-paris 
cast  of  the  other;  but  to  themselves  their  mutual  affec- 


288    FLOWER,  FEUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


tion  made  their  faces  appear  dissimilar:  each  beheld  in 
the  other  only  what  he  loved  as  foreign  to  himself  and 
it  was  the  same  with  their  features  as  with  beautiful 
actions,  which  inspire  us  with  emotion  and  admiration  in 
others,  but  not  in  ourselves. 

When  they  were  again  out  of  doors,  travelling  on 
the  road  to  Gefrees,  the  coffin-key,  together  with  their 
previous  discourse,  continually  pictured  to  their  minds 
their  last  parting,  whose  death-sickle,  with  every  mile- 
stone, approached  nearer.  Henry,  therefore,  sought  to 
throw  a  few  rosy  beams  into  Firmian's  fog  by  delivering 
into  his  hands  an  exact  protocol  of  all  the  daily  duties 
which  had  been  agreed  upon  between  him  and  the  Count 
of  Vaduz. 

"  It  is  true,  the  Count  would  merely  suppose  that 
you  had  forgotten  the  conversation  ;  however,  it  is  bet- 
ter so.  You  have  killed  yourself,  like  a  negro  slave,  in 
order  to  become  free  and  arrive  at  the  gold  coast  of 
your  silver  coast ;  and  it  would  indeed  be  damnable  if, 
after  your  death,  you  were  to  be  damned." 

"  I  cannot  thank  you  sufficiently,"  said  Firmian ; 
"  but  you  should  not  render  my  task  still  more  difficult, 
and  retire,  like  a  hand  from  the  clouds,  as  soon  as  you 
have  emptied  your  own.  Tell  me,  why  am  I  not  to  see 
you  any  more  after  our  parting  ?  " 

u  In  the  first  place,"  answered  he,  quietly,  "  because 
the  public,  the  Count,  the  Widow's  Provident  Fund 
Society,  and  your  widow,  might  discover  that  two 
editions  of  me  were  extant,  which  would  be  a  most 
terrible  misfortune  in  a  world  where  a  person  is  scarcely 
allowed  to  sit  and  sleep  solo  in  the  first  original  edition  ; 
secondly,  I  intend  to  act  upon  the  fool's  ship  of  the 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


289 


earth  several  of  the  clown's  parts,  which  I  am-  not 
ashamed  of  so  long  as  not  a  single  devil  knows  who  I 
am.  Ah,  I  could  give  you  many  more  weighty  reasons ! 
Moreover,  it  is  pleasant  to  me  to  cast  myself  down  from 
the  moon  upon  the  earth,  and  unknown,  severed,  un- 
shackled, mingle  with  mankind  as  a  freak  of  Nature,  a 
diabolus  ex  machina,  a  strange  moon  lithopcedium.  Fir- 
mian,  it  is  settled.  After  some  years  I  will  perhaps 
send  you  a  line  or  two  ;  the  rather  as  the  Galatians*  put 
letters  addressed  to  the  dead  upon  the  funeral  pyre, 
just  as  if  they  were  putting  them  into  the  post.  But 
now  it  is  decided  — positively" 

"I-  would  not  so  easily  submit,"  said  Siebenkäs, 
"  had  I  not  the  presentiment  that  I  shall  soon  see  you 
again.  I  am  not  like  you ;  I  hope  for  two  meetings, 
one  below,  one  above.  Would  to  God  that  I  could  get 
you  to  die  as  you  did  me,  and  that  we  afterwards  met 
again  upon  a  Bindlocher  mountain,  but  remained  longer 
together ! " 

If  these  wishes-  should  remind  the  reader  of  Schoppe 
in  Titan,  he  will  consider  in  what  sense  Destiny  often 
interprets  and  fulfils  our  wishes. 

Leibgeber  merely  answered  :  "  We  must  be  able  to 
love  without  seeing  one  another ;  and  in  the  end  we  can 
only  love  Love,  and  that  we  can  both  see,  daily,  in 
ourselves." 

In  the  inn  at  Gefrees,  as  they  had  plenty  of  leisure, 
considering  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  either  in  or 
out  of  the  town  with  its  one  street,  Leibgeber  proposed 
exchanging  clothes,  in  order  (this  was  the  good  reason 


VOL.  11. 


*  Alexand.  ab  Alex.  iii.  7. 
13 


s 


290     FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 
| 

he  alleged)  that  the  Count  of  Vaduz,  who  for  years  had 
never  seen  him  in  any  other  dress  than  the  present, 
might  not  perceive  anything  in  the  Advocate  to  sur- 
prise him,  but  might  find  everything  exactly  as  before, 
even  to  the  shoe-heel  with  its  nails.  This  fell  upon 
the  Advocate's  bosom  like  a  broad  beam  of  F ebruary 
sunshine,  that  is  to  say,  the  thought  that  in  future  he 
should  be  embraced,  as  it  were,  by  Henry's  sleeves,  and 
clasped  and  warmed  by  all  his  outer  relics.  Leibgebcr 
retired  into  the  next  room,  and  first  threw  his  short 
green  jacket  through  the  half-open  door,  calling  out, 
"  Frock-coat,  come  in " ;  then,  after  the  neckcloth  and 
waistcoat,  he  threw  in  his  long  trousers  with  leathern 
stripes,  saying,  "  Short  ones,  come  in " ;  and,  at  last, 
even  his  shirt,  with  words,  "  Grave-shirt,  hither." 

The  throwing  in  of  the  shirt  at  once  afforded  the 
Advocate  the  clew  to  Leibgeber's  secret  feelings.  He 
guessed  that  he  had  a  higher  motive  for  this  transmi- 
gration into  clothes  than  merely  that  of  providing  an 
actor's  dress  for  Vaduz,  namely,  the  desire  of  inhabiting 
the  case  or  shell  which  had  contained  his  friend.  Not 
in  a  whole  volume  of  Geliert  or  Klopstock's  "Letters 
upon  Friendship,"  not  in  a  whole  weekful  of  Leib- 
geber's days  of  self-denial,  was  there  anything  so  dear 
and  sweet  to  the  Advocate  as  this  inheritance  of  clothes. 
He  would  not  profane  the  surmise  that  made  him  so 
happy  by  expressing  it;  but  he  was  confirmed  in  his 
belief  when  Leibgeber  came  forth,  changed  into  a  Sie- 
benkäs, and,  after  gazing  upon  himself  with  gentle  looks 
in  the  mirror,  laid  his  three  fingers  without  speaking  a 
word  upon  Firmian's  forehead.  This  was  the  greatest 
sign  of  his  love ;  and  therefore,  to  my  own  and  Firmian's 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


29 1 


joy,  I  mention,  that  during  dinner,  though  the  conversa- 
tion was  about  indifferent  things,  he  repeated  the  sign 
more  than  three  times.  How  different  and  various 
would  have  been  the  jests  which  Leibgeber  would  have 
made  upon  this  moulting  at  any  other  season,  under 
the  influence  of  other  feelings  !  Only  to  guess  at  a  few 
of  them  :  how  much  use  he  would  have  made  of  the 
change  of  binding  of  their  two  folio  volumes,  in  order 
to  involve  Mr.  Hochmüller  (the  landlord  in  Gefrees)  in 
the  greatest  and  most  amusing  embarrassment,  from 
which  the  polite  man  could  not  have  extricated  himself 
one  minute  earlier  than  until  the  fourth  volume  had 
come  to  his  assistance,  which,  at  the  present  moment,  is 
only  in  Baireuth,  and  not  yet  in  the  press.  But  Leib- 
geber  did  nothing  of  all  this  ;  and  even  of  conceits  he 
only  delivered  himself  of  a  few  weak  ones,  about  change- 
lings, and  about  the  sudden  French  transition  of  people 
from  en  longue  robe  to  en  courte  robe  ;  and  he  also  said, 
that  he  would  no  longer  call  Siebenkäs  a  deceased  trans- 
figured being  in  boots,  but  in  shoes,  which  was  more 
fitting,  and  sounded  somewhat  more  sublime. 

He  observed  with  particular  pleasure,  that,  what  be- 
tween the  old  bodies  and  new  clothes,  as  it  were,  between 
two  fires  of  love,  his  dog  Saufinder  did  not  know  what 
to  make  of  it,  but  often  turned  away  quite  puzzled  from 
one  to  the  other :  the  agreement  between  the  two  par- 
ties, the  clipping  of  the  one,  the  increase  of  the  other, 
mystified  the  poor  animal,  and  he  could  not  compre- 
hend it. 

"  I  value  him  as  much  again,"  said  Leibgeber,  "  for 
his  behavior  to  you  ;  believe  me,  he  will  not  be  at  all 
unfaithful  to  me  if  he  is  faithful  to  you." 


292    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

He  could  scarcely  say  anything  more  obliging  to 
the  Advocate.  The  whole  way  from  Gefrees  to  Münch- 
berg, the  Advocate,  from  a  feeling  of  gratitude,  exerted 
himself  to  reflect  upon  his  friend  the  sunshine  of  cheer- 
fulness, into  which  Henry  continually  sought  to  lead 
him.  This  was  not  easy,  especially  when  he  beheld  his 
friend  trudging  after  him  in  his  long  coat.  He  made 
the  greatest  efforts  in  Münchberg,  the  last  post-station 
before  Hof,  where  the  corporeal  arms  by  which  they 
clung  together  were,  so  to  say,  to  be  cut  off  by  a  long 
separation. 

As  they  were  proceeding  along  the  road  to  Hof,  more 
silent  than  before,  Leibgeber,  who  was  in  advance,  and 
felt  revived  by  the  pine-wood  mountain  on  his  right, 
began  to  whistle,  as  was  his  wont  when  travelling,  gay 
and  sad  national  airs,  most  of  them  in  a  low  key.  He 
said,  he  did  not  consider  himself  the  worst  city  and  road 
piper,  and  he  thought  he  bore  the  innate  foot-passenger's 
post-horn  with  honor.  But  now,  so  shortly  before  part- 
ing, these  sounds,  which  seemed  to  come  echoing  from 
Henry's  long  journeys  in  former  times,  and  to  meet  him 
•  from  his  future  solitary  ones,  fell  upon  Firmian's  ear 
as  a  kind  of  Swiss  Ranz  des  Vaches,  which  penetrated 
to  his  heart ;  and  it  was  fortunate  that  he  was  behind,  for 
he  could  not  possibly  restrain  his  tears.  O,  take  away 
music,  when  the  heart  is  full,  if  it  is  not  to  overflow ! 

At  last  he  was  enabled  to  give  sufficient  steadiness  to 
his  voice  to  ask  in  an  unembarrassed  tone  :  "  Are  you 
fond  of  whistling,  and  do  you  often  do  so  on  the  road  ?  " 

There  was,  however,  something  in  the  tone  of  the 
question  which  conveyed  the  idea  that  the  fluting  was  not 
so  agreeable  to  him  as  to  the  musician  himself. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


293 


"  Always,"  answered  Leibgeber,  "  I  whistle  life  out ; 
the  theatre  of  the  world  and  all  that  is  upon  it,  and  so 
forth  ;  much  of  the  past ;  and,  like  a  steeple-warder  of 
Carlsbad,  I  also  blow  in  the  future.  But  it  displeases 
you,  perhaps  ?  Do  I  blow  false,  or  whistle  against 
rule  ?  » 

"  0,"  said  Siebenkäs,  "  only  too  beautifully  ! " 

Thereupon  Leibgeber  began  again,  but  with  ten  times 
more  force  and  beauty  than  before,  and  performed  such  a 
lovely,  melting  mouth-organ  piece,  that  Siebenkäs  came 
up  to  him  with  four  large  strides,  and  laying  his  right 
hand  gently  on  Henry's  lips,  while  he  covered  his  own 
streaming  eyes  with  the  handkerchief  in  his  left,  he  said 
to  him  in  a  quivering  voice,  "  Henry,  spare  me  !  I  know 
not  why,  but  to-day  every  tone  moves  me  too  much." 

The  musician  looked  at  him.  Leibgeber's  whole  inner 
world  was  in  his  eyeball ;  he  then  nodded  his  head  sev- 
eral times,  and  walked  rapidly  forwards  without  uttering  a 
word,  or  turning  to  look  back  or  to  be  looked  upon.  But 
his  hands,  perhaps  involuntarily,  continued  to  beat  time  to 
some  bars  of  the  air. 

At  length  they  reached  the  Grub-street  or  city  of  the 
mint,  where  I  sit  pasting  and  coloring  these  assignats*  for 
half  the  world,  i.  e.  Hof.  It  is  true  it  is  not  at  all  to  my 
advantage  that  I  then  knew  nothing  whatever  of  all  that, 
at  present,  half  Europe  is  made  acquainted  with  through 
me.  I  was  then  younger,  and  sat  solitary  at  home,  like  a 
lettuce,  with  the  best  will  to  close  into  a  head,  which  act 
of  closing  nothing  hinders  so  much,  both  in  men  and  in 
lettuces,  as  the  proximity  and  touch  of  the  neighboring 
plants.  It  is  easier,  more  agreeable,  and  more  advanta- 
*  I  am  talking  of  the  year  1796. 


FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


geous  for  a  youth  to  come  forth  out  of  solitude  into  com- 
pany, out  of  the  greenhouse  into  the  garden,  then,  vice 
versa,  out  of  the  market-place  into  a  corner.  Exclusive 
solitude  and  exclusive  sociality  are  both  injurious,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  their  order  of  precedence,  nothing  is 
so  important  as  their  interchange. 

In  Hof,  Siebenkäs  bespoke  two  rooms  of  the  landlord, 
believing  that  Leibgeber  would  not  part  from  him  before 
the  following  morning.  But  the  latter,  who  for  some  time 
had  been  vexed  at  his  own  predetermination  to  part,  and 
then  at  his  fear  of  it,  had  inwardly  sworn  to  make  the 
rent  between  two  spirits  this  very  day,  and  afterwards  to 
run  away  into  the  Saxon  territory,  even  if  it  were  at  three 
quarters  past  eleven  at  night,  —  but,  any  rate,  to-day.  He 
entered  his  chamber  good-humoredly,  unbolted  the  door 
that  divided  it  from  that  of  Siebenkäs,  and  thought  of  the 
melodies  he  had  whistled,  which  still  rang  in  his  and  the 
Advocate's  head,  if  not  in  their  hearts  ;  but  he  soon  en- 
ticed him  out  of  the  empty,  deaf  and  dumb  chamber  into 
the  distracting  hurly-burly  of  the  coffee-room  ;  did  not  re- 
main long  even  there,  but  begged  his  friend  to  cruise  with 
him  round  the  town,  just  as  the  first  quarter  of  the  moon 
stood  like  a  burning  lamp  above  its  post  on  the  market- 
place. They  both  sallied  forth,  climbed  up  to  the  avenue, 
and  looked  down  upon  the  gardens  of  Hof  in  the  city 
moat,  which  perhaps  deserve  to  supersede  artificial  mead- 
ows, since  more  frequently  than  other  meadows  they  are 
sown  for  cattle.  To  this  I  ascribe  the  observation  made 
so  late  at  night  by  Leibgeber,  who  had  been  in  Switzer- 
land, (for  the  country  adorned  and  adopted  by  nature,  and 
disinherited  by  art,  lay  stretched  out  before  him,)  that 
the  inhabitants  of  Hof  resembled  the  Swiss,  whose  whole 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


295 


country  was  an  English  garden,  with  the  exception  of  the 
few  gardens  in  it. 

The  two  continued  to  describe  more  extended  parallels 
around  the  town.  They  crossed  a  bridge  whence  they 
perceived  a  grass-grown  Rabenstein,  which  reminded 
them  of  that  other  icy  region  with  its  crater,  where  just  a 
year  ago  they  had  parted  in  the  night,  but  with  the 
sweeter  hope  of  a^  earlier  meeting.  Two  friends  such  as 
these  in  similar  situations  have  always  similar  thoughts. 
Each,  if  not  the  unison,  is  at  least  the  octave,  the  fifth,  the 
fourth,  of  the  other.  Henry  sought  to  kindle  a  little  light 
in  his  friend's  dark  house  of  mourning  and  sorrow,  by 
directing  his  attention  to  the  bird-pole,  which  stood  like  a 
commandant's  flag-staff,  or  like  the  burning-stake  not  far 
from  the  place  of  criminal  judicature. 

"  A  king  of  the  shooters,"  he  observed,  "  has  here, 
alongside  of  the  lever  and  leaping-pole  by  which  you 
swung  yourself  up  to  be  great  Negus  and  great  Mogul 
of  Kuhschnappel,  his  criminal  Sinai  most  conveniently  at 
hand,  upon  which  he  can  give  both  his  laws  and  avenge 
them." 

The  law  of  nature  by  which,  according  to  BufFon,  op- 
posite every  hill  is  always  found  a  second  of  equal  height 
and  bulk,  comprehends  many  corresponding  heights  :  for 
instance,  here  Rabenstein  and  throne,  in  large  cities 
great  houses  and  petites  maisons,  the  two  choirs  in  the 
churches,  the  fifth  story  and  Pindus,  theatres  and  church- 
pulpits. 

Since  Firmian,  lost  in  sadder  resemblances,  remained 
silent,  he  too  spoke  no  more.  He  now  conducted  him 
(for  he  was  acquainted  with  the  whole  country)  towards 
another  stone  which  had  a  more  beautiful  name,  —  to  the 


296     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

stone  of  gladness.  "While  they  were  toiling  to  it  up  the 
mountain,  Firmian  at  length  asked  him  boldly  :  — 

"  Tell  me,  —  I  am  resigned  to  it,  —  tell  me  openly, 
upon  your  honor,  when  do  you  intend  leaving  me  for- 
ever ?  " 

"  Now"  answered  Henry. 

Under  pretence  of  more  easily  ascending  the  acclivity, 
which  was  clothed  with  blooming,  fragrant  mountain- 
herbs,  they  held  each  other's  hands,  and  during  the  toil 
of  the  ascent  both  were  squeezed  apparently  by  a  me- 
chanical accident.  But  the  roots  of  sorrow  penetrating 
into  Firmian's  heart  grew  with  every  moment  larger,  and 
split  it  further  asunder,  even  as  roots  split  rocks.  Fir- 
mian threw  himself  down  upon  the  gray,  craggy  promon- 
tory, which  stood  isolated  on  the  green  height  like  a 
boundary-stone,  but  at  the  same  time  he  drew  his  parting 
brother  to  his  bosom. 

"  Sit  once  more  quite  close  beside  me,''  said  he. 

They  pointed  out  to  one  another,  as  friends  are  wont 
to  do,  everything  they  observed.  Henry  directed  his 
attention  to  the  camp  of  the  town,  pitched  at  the  base  of 
the  mountain,  in  which  nothing  was  moving  but  the  flick- 
ering lights.  The  river  coiled  round  the  town  beneath 
the  moon  like  a  giant  serpent  with  a  sparkling  back,  and 
stretched  itself  out  betwixt  two  bridges.  The  pale  light 
of  the  half-moon,  and  the  white  transparent  mists  of  night, 
raised  the  mountains  and  woods  and  earth  into  the 
heavens,  and  the  waters  upon  the  earth  were  spangled 
with  stars  like  the  blue  night  above  them,  and  the  earth, 
as  well  as  Uranus,  had  a  double  moon,  as  it  were  a  child 
in  each  hand. 

"  In  fact,"  commenced  Leibgeber,  "  we  can  always  see 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


297 


one  another  when  we  please  ;  we  have  only  to  look  into 
a  common  mirror,  —  that  is,  our  moon-mirror."  * 

"  No,"  said  Firmian,  "  we  will  agree  upon  a  time  when 
we  will  think  of  one  another  at  the  same  moment,  on  our 
birthdays,  on  the  day  of  my  pantomimic  death,  and  on 
this  day." 

"Good,"  said  Leibgeber;  "those  shall  be  our  four 
quarter-days." 

All  at  once  his  hand  happened  to  come  in  contact  with 
a  dead  lark,  which  had  probably  been  killed  by  the  hail. 
Suddenly  he  grasped  Firmian  by  the  shoulder,  and  said, 
as  he  pulled  him  up  :  — 

"  Stand  up  ;  we  are  men  !  What  is  the  use  of  all  this  ! 
Farewell !  May  God  crush  me  with  a  thousand  thunder- 
bolts if  you  ever  go  out  of  my  head  or  heart.  You  will 
remain  forever  in  my  bosom  as  warmly  as  a  living  heart ; 
and  so  farewell :  and  upon  the  Berghem's  sea-piece  of 
your  life  may  there  be  no  wave  as  big  as  a  tear  !  Fare- 
well!" 

They  clung  together  and  wept  heartily,  and  Firmian 
as  yet  returned  no  answer.  His  fingers  stroked  and 
caressed  Henry's  hair.  At  last  he  leaned  his  cheek  only 
against  the  beloved  eyes,  —  before  his  own  beamed  the 
wide  abyss  of  night ;  and  his  lips,  which  were  turned 
away  from  the  parting  kiss,  murmured  almost  inaudibly, 
"  Farewell,  sayest  thou  to  me  ?  Ah !  that,  indeed,  I 
cannot,  when  I  have  lost  my  truest,  my  oldest  friend. 

*  Pythagoras  invented  a  means  by  which  everything  that  he  wrote 
upon  a  mirror  with  bean-juice  became  legible  in  the  moon.  Coel. 
Ehodigin.  xi.  13.  When  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.  were  waging  war 
with  each  other  to  obtain  possession  of  Milan,  every  thing  that  hap- 
pened in  the  day  at  Milan  could,  by  means  of  such  a  mirror,  easily  be 
read  on  the  moon  at  night  in  Paris.  Agrippa,  De  Occul  Philos.  ii.  6. 
13* 


298     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

The  earth  henceforth  will  be  as  dark  to  me  as  it  now  is 
around  us.  It  will  be  hard  for  me  one  day  in  death, 
wl ten  in  my  darkness  I  stretch  out  my  hand  to  feel  for 
you,  and  think  in  my  delirium  that  death  is  again  only 
simulated  as  before,  and  I  say,  '  Henry,  close  my  eyes, 
—  I  cannot  die  without  thee  ! '  " 

They  remained  silent  in  a  convulsive  embrace. 
Henry  whispered,  "  Ask  me  what  you  still  wish  me  to 
say  to  you  ;  then  may  God  punish  me  if  I  utter  another 
word." 

Firmian  stammered  out,  "  Will  you  still  continue  to 
love  me,  and  shall  I  soon  see  you  again  ?  " 

"  Not  for  a  long  time,"  answered  he  ;  "  and  I  shall  love 
you  unceasingly." 

As  he  endeavored  to  tear  himself  away,  Firmian  held 
him  fast.  "We  will  look  at  one  another  only  once 
more,"  entreated  he  ;  and  they  bent  back,  with  their  faces 
channelled  by  sorrow,  and  looked  at  one  another  for  the 
last  time,  as  the  night-wind,  like  the  arm  of  a  stream, 
mingled  with  the  deep  river,  and  both,  united,  murmured 
along  in  larger  billows,  and  as  the  wide  mountains  of 
creation  trembled  beneath  the  dim  radiance  of  tearful 
eyes.  But  Henry  tore  himself  away,  made  a  motion  with 
his  hand,  as  if  to  say  it  was  all  over,  and  fled  down  the 
mountain. 

After  a  short  time,  the  spur  of  pain  impelled  Firmian 
unconsciously  to  follow  him,  and  his  inner  man,  com- 
pressed to  insensibility  by  the  tourniquet,  did  not  at  this 
moment  feel  the  amputation  of  his  limb.  They  both 
pursued  the  same  road,  though  separated  by  mountains 
and  valleys.  As  often  as  Henry  stood  still  and  looked 
back,  Firmian  did  the  same.    Ah  !  after  such  a  sultry 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


storm,  every  wave  freezes  to  an  icy  ridge,  and  the  heart 
lies  transpierced  upon  them.  Did  it  not  seem  to  our 
Firmian,  whilst  with  this  broken  heart  he  traversed  the 
undistinguishable  dusky  paths,  as  if  all  the  funeral  bells 
were  tolling  behind  him,  —  as  if  life  were  flying  away 
from  him  ?  and  when,  in  relief  against  the  blue  sky,  he 
beheld  a  black  storm-tree  *  which  rested  on  the  stars 
like  a  bier  for  the  future,  was  it  not  natural  that  a  voice 
should  exclaim  within  him,  "  With  this  foot-rule  of 
vapor  ^estiny  measures  you,  your  earth  and  your  love, 
for  the  last  coffin  "  ?  From  the  distance  never  varying 
between  himself  and  the  form  he  had  observed,  Henry 
at  length  became  aware  that  it  was  following  him,  and 
only  halted  when  he  halted.  He,  therefore,  resolved  to 
wait  in  the  next  village,  where  his  stopping  would  not 
be  perceived,  for  the  shape  that  was  creeping  after  him. 
In  the  next  village,  which  was  situated  deep  in  the 
valley  Topen,  he  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  pursuing  un- 
distinguishable being  in  the  deep  shadow  of  a  gleaming 
church.  Firmian  hastened  along  the  broad,  white  road, 
stupefied  by  sorrow  and  blinded  by  the  moonlight,  and 
paused  near  the  friend  he  had  parted  from.  They  stood 
opposite  one  another,  like  two  spirits  over  their  corpses, 
and  each  deemed  the  other  an  apparition,  as  the  super- 
stitious believe  the  noises  made  by  those  who  are  buried 
alive  to  proceed  from  ghosts.  Firmian  hesitated,  fear- 
ing that  his  beloved  friend  would  be  displeased,  and  from 
afar  he  lifted  up  his  trembling  arm,  and  stammered  forth, 
"  It  is  I,  Henry,"  and  went  towards  him.  Henry  uttered 
a  cry  of  sorrow,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  faithful 

*  A  long  cloud  with  streaks  like  branches,  which  announces  a 
storm. 


300     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

bosom,  but  his  oath  chained  his  tongue,  and  thus  the 
two  wretched  or  blessed  beings,  mute,  blind,  and  weep- 
ing, pressed  their  two  throbbing  hearts  once  more  closely 
together  ;  and  when  the  speechless  moment,  full  of  an- 
guish and  rapture,  was  past,  an  iron  cold  one  tore  them 
asunder,  and  Fate  seized  them  with  two  almighty  arms, 
and  flung  the  one  bleeding  heart  to  the  south,  the  other 
to  the  north,  and  the  dejected,  silent  corpses  pursued 
slowly  and  solitarily  the  widening  path  of  separation  in 
the  ni2jht. 

And  why,  then,  does  my  own  heart  break,  —  why, 
long  before  I  came  to  this  parting,  could  I  no  more 
stanch  my  overflowing  eyes?  O,  my  good  Christian, 
it  is  not  because  in  this  church  those  now  rest  and  decay 
who  once  lay  upon  thy  heart  and  mine  !  —  no,  no,  I  have 
become  used  to  it  now,  in  the  black  magic  of  our  life, 
to  see  skeletons  suddenly  spring  up  in  the  place  of  our 
friends.  I  know  that  one  must  die  when  two  embrace  ;  * 
—  that  an  unknown  breath  blows  the  thin  glass  which 
we  call  a  human  bosom,  and  that  an  unknown  cry  again 
breaks  the  glass.  It  is  no  longer  so  painful  to  me  as  it 
once  was,  ye  two  brothers  sleeping  in  the  church  !  —  that 
the  hard,  cold  hand  of  death  struck  you  away  so  early 
from  the  honey-dew  of  life,  and  that  you  expanded  your 
wings  and  disappeared.  O,  ye  have  either  a  sounder 
sleep,  or  more  friendly  dreams,  or  a  brighter  waking 
than  ours !  But  that  which  agonizes  us  in  every  grave- 
hillock  is  the  thought,  "  Ah !  how  much  I  would  have 
loved  thee,  good  heart,  had  I  but  known  thy  death 
beforehand!"    But  as  not  one  of  us  can  take  the  hand 


*  The  superstition  is,  that,  of  two  children  who  kiss  without,  heing 
able  to  speak,  the  one  must  die. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


301 


of  a  corpse,  and  say,  "  Thou  pale  image,  I  have  at  least 
sweetened  thy  fleeting  life  ;  I  never  gave  thy  faded  heart 
anything  but  pure  love,  pure  joy " ;  —  as  we  all,  when 
at  length  Time,  Sorrow,  and  Life's  winter  without  love 
have  beautified  our  hearts,  must  step  with  useless  sighs 
up  to  the  forms  that  lie  overwhelmed  by  the  earth-fall 
of  the  grave,  and  say,  "  Alas,  that  I  can  no  longer 
possess  you  and  love  you,  now  that  I  am  better  and 
gentler !  Alas,  that  the  good  bosom  is  now  hollow  and 
broken  in,  and  no  longer  contains  a  heart  which  I  would 
now  love  better,  and  gladden  more  than  before  !  "  —  what 
is  left  to  us  but  a  vain  sorrow,  a  dumb  repentance,  and 
unceasing  bitter  tears  ?  No,  my  Christian,  something 
better  is  left  us,  —  a  warmer,  truer,  more  beautiful  love 
towards  every  soul  that  we  have  not  yet  lost ! 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


Days  at  Vaduz.  — Natalie's  Letter.  — A  New- Year's  Wish. 
—  Wilderness  of  Destiny  and  of  the  Heart. 

~'E  meet  our  Firmian  again,  who,  after  his 
departure  from  the  world,  had  risen  to  a 
higher  grade,  as  is  the  case  with  officers, 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  rank  of  an  Inspector,  in 
his  inspector's  dwelling  at  Vaduz.  He  was  now  obliged 
to  force  his  way  through  so  many  tangled  holly-brakes 
and  thorny  hedges,  that,  amid  his  labors,  he  forgot  he  was 
so  alone,  so  quite  alone  in  the  world.  No  man  could 
overcome  and  endure  solitude  if  he  did  not  cherish  the 
hope  of  a  social  circle  in  the  future,  or  the  imagination 
of  an  invisible  one  in  the  present. 

In  his  intercourse  with  the  Count  he  had  only  to 
appear  what  he  was,  and  then  he  most  resembled  Leib- 
geber.  He  found  in  him  an  old  man  of  the  world,  who, 
living  alone,  without  wife  and  sons  or  female  domestics, 
covered  and  adorned  his  gray  hairs  with  the  arts  and 
sciences,  the  longest  and  latest  enjoyments  of  a  joy- 
exhausted  existence.  He  loved  nothing  else  on  the  earth 
(always  excepting  the  act  of  joking  upon  it)  but  his 
daughter,  with  whom  Natalie  had  wandered  and  revelled 
among  the  stars  and  blossoms  of  "her  youthful  days. 
As  he  had  exerted  all  his  powers  of  soul  and  body  in 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


^his  earlier  days  to  climb  and  carry  off  the  prizes  from 
the  highest  and  most  slippery  cocagne* -trees  of  pleasure, 
it  was  natural  enough  that  he  should  come  down  from 
them  with  both  elements  of  his  being  somewhat  faint 
and  exhausted.  His  mental  life  was  now  a  sort  of 
nursing  and  lying  in  a  tepid  bath,  from  which  he  could 
never  rise  without  a  cold  fit  of  shivering,  and  into  which 
fresh  warm  water  had  continually  to  be  poured.  The 
keeping  of  his  word,  which  with  him  was  a  point  of 
honor,  and  the  greatest  happiness  of  his  daughter,  were 
the  only  unbroken  reins  by  which  the  moral  law  had 
ever  restrained  him  ;  for  he  looked  upon  all  its  other 
bonds  more  in  the  light  of  flower-chains  or  pearl-strings, 
which  a  man  of  the  world  ties  together  again  so  often  in 
the  course  of  his  life. 

As  it  is  easier  to  simulate  lameness  than  an  upright 
carriage,  it  was  consequently  less  difficult  for  Siebenkäs 
to  act  the  part  of  the  dear  lame  devil,  his  Leibgeber. 
The  Count  was  only  struck  by  the  natural  white  paint 
upon  his  face,  by  his  sorrowful  countenance,  and  by  a 
number  of  inexpressible  little  deviations,  variations,  and 
aberrations  from  Leibgeber  ;  but  the  Inspector  helped 
his  liege  out  of  his  dream  by  remarking,  that  he  hardly 
knew  himself  any  longer,  and  that  he  had  become  his 
own  changeling  ever  since  he  had  been  ill,  and  had  seen 
his  college-friend  Siebenkäs  depart  this  life  in  Kuh- 
schnappel.  In  short,  the  Count  was  obliged  to  believe 
what  he  heard  ;  who  could  ever  dream  of  such  an  absurd 
story  as  that  which  I  here  narrate  ?  Even  if  my  reader 
had  then  stood  by  in  the  room,  he  must  still  have  be- 

*  "Mat  de  cocagne,"  —  a  smooth,  high  mast,  at  the  top  of  which 
are  prizes  for  successful  climbers.  —  Tr. 


304    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


lieved  the  Inspector  rather  than  myself,  were  it  only  that 
the  Inspector  recollected  more  of  his  former  conversa- 
tion with  the  Count  —  true,  it  was  from  Leibgeber's  jour- 
nal that  he  learnt  it  —  than  did  the  Count  himself.  How- 
ever, since  he  had  to  act  the  part  of  man  of  business  and 
feoffee  of  his  beloved  Henry,  he  was  obliged  to  exhibit 
two  qualities  in  a  high  degree,  —  cheerfulness  and  good 
temper.  Leibgeber's  humor  was  stronger  in  coloring, 
bolder  in  drawing,  and  had  a  more  poetical,  universal, 
and  ideal  compass  *  than  that  of  Firmian  ;  therefore  the 
latter  was  obliged  to  raise  his  chamber  voice  into  a  choir- 
voice,  in  order  to  imitate  him  at  least,  if  not  to  come 
up  to  him.  And  this  appearance  of  a  cheerful  humor 
changed  at  last  into  a  real  one.  In  consequence,  too,  of 
his  fine  feeling  and  his  friendship,  Henry's  magnified, 
bright  image,  upon  whose  head  the  halo  of  beams  inter- 
twined with  the  laurel-wreath,  was  always  borne  before 
him  on  his  path  of  life,  as  upon  a  Moses-pillar  of  clouds, 
and  every  thought  in  him  whispered,  "  Be  glorious,  be 
divine,  be  a  Socrates,  if  only  to  do  honor  to  the  spirit 
whose  emissary  thou  art."    And  to  which  of  us  would 

*  u  Therefore  I  foresee  that  Leibgeber's  pastoral  letters  in  these 
1  Flower-Pieces '  will  be  unendurable  letters  of  defiance  and  challenge 
for  most  of  my  readers.  Most  of  the  Germans  —  this  cannot  be  de- 
nied them  —  understand  a  joke;  not  all  understand  raillery;  and  very 
few  humor, — least  of  all  such  as  that  of  Leibgeber.  Considering, 
therefore,  that  it  was  easier  to  change  a  book  than  the  public,  ray  first 
intention  was  to  have  falsified  all  his  letters,  and  to  have  substituted 
more  intelligible  ones.  However,  it  can  ahvaj's  be  so  arranged,  in  the 
second  edition,  that  the  counterfeit  letters  shall  be  inserted  into  the 
text,  and  the  real  ones  subjoined  as  an  appendix."  This  was  not  ren- 
dered necessary;  but,  heavens!  how  can  first  editions  make  such 
egregious  blunders,  and  mis-estimate  so  many  readers,  to  whom  second 
editions  afterwards  make  the  sincerest  and  warmest  acknowledg- 
ments ? 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


it  be  possible  to  take  the  name  of  a  beloved  person,  and, 
under  this  name,  to  be  guilty  of  sin  ? 

No  one  in  the  world  is  so  often  cheated — not  even 
women  and  princes  —  as  the  conscience.  The  Inspector 
deluded  his  in  some  such  manner  as  this  :  "  In  earlier 
years  his  name  had  really  been  Leibgeber,  just  as  he 
now  signed  himself ;  he  also  assisted  the  Count  enough. 
Besides,  could  any  one  be  more  resolved  than  he  was  to 
relate  everything  to  the  latter  exactly  as  it  happened, 
even  to  a  hair,  as  soon  as  it  was  in  his  power  ?  It  was 
easy  to  foresee  that  such  a  humorous  juridical  forging, 
and  such  a  picturesque  deception,  would  surprise  him 
more  agreeably  than  all  the  necessary  truths  founded 
on  reason  and  responsa  prudentum ;  not  to  mention  the 
Count's  joy  when  he  discovered  that  the  same  friend,  and 
humorist,  and  jurist,  was  to  be  had  two-headed,  two- 
hearted,  four-legged,  and  four-armed,  in  short,  in  duplo. 
He  must  also  observe  that  his  lies  were  more  those  of 
necessity  than  lies  in  jest ;  inasmuch  as  he  touched  upon 
the  past  conversations  and  circumstances  of  Leibgeber 
most  unwillingly  and  as  seldom  as  possible ;  whereas  he 
spoke  more  freely  and  more  frequently  about  his  own 
affairs,  which  excluded  no  truth." 

So  is,  not  the  Inspector,  but  man.  The  latter  has  an 
indescribable  love  of  halves,  —  perhaps  because  he  is  a 
colossus  standing  with  outstretched  legs  upon  two  worlds, 
—  namely,  of  half  romances  - —  of  the  half  '  franco '  of 
selfishness  —  of  half  proofs  —  of  half  learning  —  of  half 
holidays  —  of  hemispheres  —  and  consequently  of  bet- 
ter halves. 

During  the  first  weeks  his  new  labors,  of  every  sort, 
concealed  from  him  his  sorrows  and  his  longings,  at  least 

VOL.  II.  T 


306    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


as  long  as  the  sun  shone.  The  first  addition  to  his 
pleasure,  however,  was  made  by  the  Count's  satisfaction 
with  his  juridical  knowledge  and  punctual  labors.  The 
latter  once  even  said  to  him,  "  Friend  Leibgeber,  you 
keep  your  previous  promise  bravely.  Your  insight  and 
punctuality  in  business  is  an  additional  honor  to  you ; 
for  I  confess  freely  that,  with  all  my  respect  for  your 
other  talents,  I  had  some  unpleasant  misgivings  on  this 
head  :  for,  like  your  Frederick  IL,  I  separate  business 
altogether  from  conversation  ;  to  all  that  respects  the 
former  I  exact  the  most  scrupulous  and  punctual  atten- 
tion." 

Thereupon  Firmian  thought  and  rejoiced  within  him- 
self, — "  Thus  far,  at  least,  I  have  turned  aside  some 
blame  from  my  dear  friend,  and  acquired  some  praise 
for  him,  which,  had  he  pleased,  he  could  easily  have 
acquired  for  himself." 

After  such  a  pleasure  of  self-denial,  a  man  always 
desires  to  enjoy  new  pleasures  of  self-denial  and  to  make 
new  sacrifices ;  like  children,  who,  after  having  once 
given,  will  never  cease  giving.  He  unpacked  his  Selec- 
tion from  the  Devil's  Papers,  and  gave  them  to  the 
Count,  saying  quite  openly,  that  he  had  composed  them. 
"  In  this  I  do  not  deceive  him  in  the  least,"  thought  he, 
"  notwithstanding  that  he  ascribes  them  to  Leibgeber ; 
for  I  have  now  no  other  name." 

The  Count  could  not  read  and  praise  the  papers 
enough ;  and  what  particularly  pleased  him  was  the 
true  zeal  showed  by  the  author  in  allowing  himself  to 
be  directed  in  the  right  path  of  satire  by  his  two  country- 
men, the  British  twin-constellation  of  humor,  Swift  and 
Sterne. 


CHAPTER  XXIII.  307 

Siebenkäs  heard  his  book  praised  with  so  much  pleas- 
ure, and  smiled  with  such  delight,  that  he  really  looked 
like  a  vain  author,  while,  in  fact,  he  was  nothing  but  a 
lover  of  his  Henry,  upon  whose  name  and  form,  in  the 
Count's  soul,  he  had  been  able  to  conjure  a  few  more 
laurel-crowns. 

But  this  little  pleasure  was  indeed  needful,  as  some 
consolation  and  cordial  for  a  life  which,  cold  and  over- 
shadowed, flowed  on  from  week  to  week,  from  month  to 
month,  between  steep  shores  of  piled-up  acts  and  docu- 
ments. Alas  !  he  heard  nothing  better,  with  the  excep- 
tion only  of  the  good  Count,  whose  extraordinary  kind- 
ness would  have  made  his  heart  beat  still  more  warmly 
had  he  but  been  able  to  thank  him  for  it  both  in  his  own 
and  in  another's  name,  —  he  heard  nothing  better,  I  say, 
than  the  waves  of  his  life,  which  sometimes  murmured. 
He  again  found  himself  daily  in  the  hard  position  of  a 
critic,  which  he  had  been  before,  —  obliged  to  read  what 
he  had  to  criticise,  —  formerly  authors,  now  advocates. 
He  looked  into  so  many  empty  heads,  —  into  so  many 
empty  hearts  ;  in  the  former  he  beheld  so  much  folly,  in 
the  latter  so  much  blackness.  He  perceived  how  much 
the  common  people,  when  travelling  to  the  Egerian 
fountain  of  juridical  inkstands  to  cure  themselves  of 
bladder-stones,  resembled  the  frequenters  of  Carlsbad, 
in  whom  the  hot  spring  brings  out  all  the  hidden  dis- 
eased matter  upon  the  surface  of  the  skin.  He  saw  that 
most  of  the  old  and  worst  advocates,  in  this  one  respect 
only,  bore  a  beautiful  resemblance  to  poisonous  plants, 
that,  like  them,  they  are  not  half  so  poisonous  in  their 
youth  and  period  of  bloom,  but,  on  the  contrary,  much 
more  harmless.    He  saw  that  a  just  judgment  was  often 


308    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

as  injurious  as  an  unjust  one,  and  that  appeals  were 
made  against  both.  He  saw  that  it  was  an  easier, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  more  unpleasant  thing,  to  be  a 
judge  than  to  be  an  advocate,  but  that  neither  of  them 
were  losers  by  an  injustice  ;  since  the  judge  was  as  well 
paid  for  a  judgment  set  aside,  as  an  advocate  for  a  lost 
lawsuit ;  and  that  they  therefore  lived  as  comfortably 
upon  the  fall  of  justice  as  SchafFhausen  upon  the  fall 
of  the  Rhine  ;  that,  in  the  treatment  of  dependants,  the 
principle  of  grooms  was  applied,  who  consider  the  curry- 
combing  half  the  horse's  food  ;  and  lastly,  he  saw  that 
no  one  was  more  ill-used  in  the  affair  than  he  who  wit- 
nessed it,  and  that  the  Devil  never  carried  off  anything 
less  frequently  than  —  devils. 

Amid  such  labors  and  views  the  tender  veins  of  the 
heart  contract,  and  the  open  arms  of  the  inner  man  are 
paralyzed.  The  overburdened  man  scarcely  has  the  de- 
sire to  love,  far  less  the  time.  We  always  love  and  seek 
things  at  the  expense  of  persons  ;  and  the  man  who  works 
too  much  must  love  too  little. 

Poor  Firmian  listened  each  day  to  the  prayers  and 
wishes  of  his  tender  ,soul  on  one  single  spot  alone,  namely, 
upon  his  pillow,  and  the  pillow-case  was  his  white  hand- 
kerchief, waiting  for  his  wet  eyes.  Over  the  whole  of 
his  former  world  rolled  a  deluge  of  tears,  and  nothing 
floated  above  it  but  the  two  faded  funereal  chaplets  of 
departed  days,  Natalie  and  Lenette's  flowers,  —  the  pet- 
rified medicinal  flowers,  as  it  were,  of  his  sick  soul, — 
the  border-plants  of  desolated  beds. 

Living,  as  he  did,  so  far  away,  and  not  in  any  corner 
of  the  elliptical  vault,  he  could  learn  as  little  of  the  im- 
perial market-town  as  of  Schraplau,  —  of  Lenette  and 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


Natalie  nothing.  He  merely  saw  in  the  Messenger  of 
the  Gods  and  Advertiser  of  German  Programmes  that 
he  had  died,  and  that  the  critical  institution  thereby 
found  itself  deprived  of  one  of  its  best  and  most  diligent 
co-operatdrs,  which  nccrologium  rewarded  the  Inspector 
earlier  than  any  German  scholar,  and  not  later  than  the 
Olympian  conqueror  Euthymus,*  to  whom,  by  a  decree 
of  the  Delphic  oracle,  sacrifice  and  divine  worship  were 
adjudged  even  during  his  lifetime.  I  know  not  to  what 
ears  the  German  Fama  most  loves  to  blow  her  trumpet, 
—  whether  to  deaf  ears  or  to  long  ones. 

And  yet  Firmian"  preserved,  in  the  ice-mouth  of  his 
heart,  that  so  yearned  for  love,  and  in  the  wilderness  of 
his  solitude,  one  living,  blooming  flower,  and  this  was 
Natalie's  parting  kiss. 

Oh  !  if  ye  but  knew  —  ye  who  suffer  an  unceasing 
hunger  because  of  our  insatiableness  —  how  a  kiss  which 
is  a  first  and  a  last  one  blooms  throughout  a  whole  life, 
as  the  everlasting  double  rose  of  the  silent  lips  and  glow- 
ing souls,  ye  would  seek  and  find  longer  joys.  That  kiss 
established  in  Firmian  the  spirit-bond,  and  eternalized 
love  in  its  season  of  blossoming ;  the  silent  lips  still 
continued  to  speak  to  him ;  the  spirit's  inspiration  was 
wafted  still  from  breath  to  breath  ;  and  however  often  in 
his  nights,  from  behind  his  closed  eyes,  he  let  Natalie 
part  from  him  with  her  sublime  sorrows,  and  disappear 
in  the  dark  shrubbery-paths,  he  was  yet  never  tired  of 
the  parting,  of  the  sorrows,  and  of  the  love. 

At  last,  after  the  lapse  of  six  months,  on  a  lovely 
winter's  morning,  when  the  white  mountains,  with  their 
snowy  crystal  woods,  were  bathing,  as  it  were,  in  the 
*  Plin.  H.  N.  vii.  48. 


3IO.  FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

rose-blood  of  the  sun,  and  when  the  wings  of  aurora, 
more  widely  expanded,  laid  themselves  upon  the  spark- 
ling earth,  a  letter  flew  into  Firmian's  empty  hand,  as 
if  wafted  in  advance  by  the  morning  wind  of  a  future 
spring.  It  was  from  Natalie,  who,  like  every  one  else, 
supposed  him  to  be  the  Henry  of  former  days. 

"  Dear  Leibgeber,  —  I  can  no  longer  control  my 
heart,  which  has  daily  yearned  to  melt  or  break  before 
yours,  only  that  it  might  disclose  to  you  all  its  wounds. 
Once  at  least  you  were  my  friend  :  am  I  quite  forgotten  ? 
Have  I  lost  you  too?  O,  surely  hot!  It  is  only  that 
you  cannot  speak  to  me  for  sorrow,  because  your  Fir- 
mian  died  upon  your  heart,  and  still  reposes  in  the  cold 
of  death  upon  the  aching  spot.  O,  why  did  you  per- 
suade me  to  accept  fruits  which  grow  upon  his  grave, 
and  which,  as  it  were,  will  open  his  coffin  for  me  every 
year  ?  *  The  first  day  I  received  them  was  a  sad  one,  — 
sadder  than  any  before.  You  will  perceive  in  a  little 
new-year's  wish,  addressed  to  myself,  which  I  enclose, 
that  one  passage  refers  to  a  white  rose-tree  in  my  room 
from  which  I  gathered  a  few  white  roses  in  December. 
My  friend,  now  attend  to  a  request,  which  is  the  motive 
of  my  writing  this  letter,  —  it  is  my  warmest  prayer  for 
sorrow,  for  still  greater  sorrow ;  then  I  shall  have  con- 
solation. Send  me  —  since  no  one  else  can,  and  I  know 
nobody  —  a  circumstantial  detail  of  the  last  hours  and 
minutes  of  our  beloved  friend;  tell  me  what  he  said, 
what  he  suffered,  how  his  eye  became  glazed,  and  how 
his  life  ceased  ;  I  must  learn  all,  everything  that  will 
pierce  me  to  the  heart.    What  can  it  cost  you  and  me 

*  Refers  to  the  widow's  pension. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


3n 


but  tears  ?  and  they  refresh  a  sick  eye.     I  am  your 

friend  u  AT 

"  Natalie. 

"  P.  S.  Were  I  not  restrained  by  so  many  circum- 
stances, I  would  make  a  pilgrimage  to  his  place  of  resi- 
dence in  person*,  and  collect  relics  for  my  soul ;  although 
I  will  not  answer  for  anything  if  you  are  silent.  I  con- 
gratulate you  upon  your  new  appointment,  and  I  hope  to 
be  able  to  do  so  some  day  by  word  of  mouth.  My  heart 
will  at  length  so  far  heal  as  to  enable  me  to  visit  my  dear 
friend  at  her  father's  house,  and  to  see  you  without  too 
much  pain  at  the  resemblance  which  you  bear  to  your 
now  unlike  buried  beloved  friend." 

The  pretty  poem  was  in  English  verse,  as  follows :  — 

"  The  New  Year  opens  wide  its  gate : 
Between  the  redly-rising  sun 
And  morning  vapors  standeth  Fate, 
And  hath  the  new  year's  task  begun. 

"  He  stands  upon  the  dead  year's  tomb, 
The  days  obedient  round  him  bow, 
To  scatter  light,  to  scatter  gloom; 
Say,  Natalie,  what  prayest  thou  ? 

"  0,  not  for  joys ;  alas !  their  bloom, 
That  in  my  heart  no  home  could  find, 
A  moment  shed  a  sweet  perfume, 
Then  died,  and  left  their  thorns  behind. 

"  Where  sheds  the  sun  his  warmest  beam, 
The  heavy  thunder-cloud  doth  grow ; 
Our  light  is  nothing  but  the  gleam 
Cast  from  the  sword  of  coming  woe. 

"  0  no!  I  ask  for  joys  no  more; 

They  make  the  thirsting  heart  so  drear, 
With  tears  alone  it  floweth  o'er, 
For  naught  but  sorrow  fills  it  here." 


312     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


"  The  Future  bows  to  Fate.  Natalie,  say,  what  dost 
thou  desire  ?  " 

"  I  ask  no  love ;  for  whoso  presses 

Upon  his  heart  love's  fair  white  rose 
Is  wounded  e'en  while  he  caresses^ 
And  never  more  those  wounds  will  close. 

"  The  life-warm  tear  of  joy,  which  threw 
Upon  its  cup  a  brighter  dye, 
%    Too  soon  grows  cold,  and  then,  like  dew, 
It  melts  away  into  a  sigh. 

"  At  dawn  of  life,  in  beauty  proud, 
Fair  as  Aurora,  love  appears ; 
0,  enter  not  the  radiant  cloud, 
For  it  is  built  of  mist  and  tears ! 

"  Ah,  no !  no  love,  no  love  for  me ; 
Of  nobler  sorrows  I  would  die, 
Beneath  a  loftier  poison-tree 
Than  the  low  myrtle  gasping^lie." 

"  Thou  kneelest  before  Destiny,  Natalie.  Speak,  what 
dost  thou  wish  for  ?  " 

"  Not  e'en  for  friends,  —  no  more;  we  stand 
All  side  by  side  o'er  hollow  graves, 
And  when  together,  hand  in  hand, 
Our  mutual  love  life's  sorrow  braves. 

"  Behold,  the  treacherous  vault  gives  way, 
And  claims  the  loved  one  for  its  own ; 
And  I  with  frozen  days  must  stay 
Above  the  filled-up  pit  —  alone. 

(i  No,  no,  not  here;  but  when  the  breast 
Is  wed  to  stern  decay  no  more ; 
When  friends  shall  meet  in  cloudless  rest 
Upon  the  everlasting  shore ; 


CHAPTER  XXIII.  313 

"  Then  shall  my  heart  more  warmly  beat, 
More  gladly  weep  the  unfading  eye ; 
The  lips  that  cannot  pale  repeat 

The  words  of  love,  and  breathe  its  sigh. 

"  0,  come  to  me,  beloved  soul ! 

To-day  we  '11  love  without  a  fear, 
Nor  seek  our  rapture  to  control,  — 
There  is  no  death  to  part  us  here." 

"  O  thou  forsaken  Natalie !  what  then  dost  thou  wish 
for  on  earth  ?  " 

"  For  patience  and  the  grave,  —  deny, 

0  silent  Fate,  not  that;  first  take 
The  tears  away,  then  close  the  eye ; 

First  soothe  the  heart,  then  let  it  break. 

"  Once  when  beneath  a  lovelier  sky 
The  spirit  spreads  its  buoyant  wing; 
When  in  a  purer  world  on  high 

The  new  year  dawns,  new  joys  to  bring; 

"  When  all  shall  meet  and  love  again, 
Then  shall  my  wishes  be  confessed; 
Yet  no,  —  e'en  then  I  must  refrain; 

1  should  already  be  too  blest." 

What  language  could  depict  the  internal  speechless- 
ness and  stupefaction  of  her  friend  after  he  had  read  the 
paper  ?  He  still  held  it,  and  gazed  upon  it,  though  he 
could  no  longer  either  see  or  think.  Alas !  the  icebergs 
of  the  glacier  of  death  advanced  farther,  and  filled  up  one 
warm  Ternpe  after  another  ! 

The  only  bond  by  which  Firmian,  in  his  loneliness, 
was  now  attached  to  humanity,  was  the  rope  which  tolled 
his  death-knell  and  let  down  his  coffin.  His  bed  was 
nothing  but  a  broad  bier  ;  and  if  ever  he  had  a  moment 
of  joy,  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  he  committed  a  robbery  on 

vol.  11.  14 


3H    FLOWER,  FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

the  withered  leaf-stripped  heart  of  another.  The  stem  of 
his  life,  like  that  of  man}'  plants,*  sank  continually  lower, 
and  its  top  became  the  hidden  root. 

On  all  sides  yawned  the  abyss  of  a  difficulty ;  and 
action  was  as  dangerous  as  inaction.  I  will  lay  before 
the  reader  the  difficulties  or  resolutions,  in  the  order  they 
presented  themselves  to  his  soul.  In  man,  the  Devil  al- 
ways rises  up  sooner  than  the  angel,  —  the  bad  resolution 
sooner  than  the  good  one.f  His  first  was  not  moral, 
namely,  to  answer  Natalie,  and  to  relate  the  story  of  his 
death,  —  that  is  to  tell  her  lies.  We  find  the  mourning- 
robe  beautiful  when  others  put  it  on  for  us,  and  warm 
when  we  put  it  on  for  others. 

"  But  I  shall  burden  her  beautiful  heart,"  said  his, 
"  with  a  new  sorrow  by  thus  continuing  to  wound  it  by  a 
lie.  Ah  !  not  even  my  real  death  would  be  worth  so 
much  grief.  I  will  rather  keep  silence."  But  then  she 
would  naturally  think  Henry  was  angry,  and  that  she  had 
lost  this  friend  likewise ;  yes,  she  might  even  take  a  jour- 
ney to  the  imperial  market-town,  and,  standing  before  his 
gravestone,  bear  it  as  an  additional  weight  upon  her  op- 
pressed and  trembling  soul. 

Both  ways  were  exposed  to  the  danger  of  her  coming 
to  Vaduz,  and  then  he  would  have  to  turn  the  written 

•       *  In  ranunculuses  the  lowest  part  of  the  stalk  sinks  every  year 
deeper  into  the  earth  to  replace  the  root,  which  rots  away. 

t  In  enthusiasm  the  order  is  reversed.  If  you  desire  to  know  your 
firmly  established  principles  of  moral  worth  with  much  greater  cer- 
tainty than  you  can  learn  them  from  resolutions  and  actions,  you 
have  only  to  pay  attention  to  the  joy  or  sorrow  which  first  arises  in 
you,  like  a  flash  of  lightning,  on  the  occasion  of  a  moral  call  of  duty, 
a  piece  of  news,  a  disappointment,  &c,  but  again  immediately  dis- 
appears, conquered  by  further  reflection.  What  large  pieces  of  the 
old  corrupting  Adam  do  not  we  often  find ! 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


lies,  which  he  had  spared  himself,  into  spoken  lies.  One 
other  way  yet  lay  open  before  him,  —  the  most  virtuous, 
but  the  steepest.  He  could  tell  her  the  truth ;  but  even 
if  Natalie  were  silent,  with  what  danger  was  this  confes- 
sion not  fraught  in  his  present  position  ?  and  in  Natalie's 
eyes  a  crooked  yellow  light^  would  fall  upon  his  good 
Henry,  especially  as  she  knew  nothing  which  would  re- 
veal the  magnanimity  of  his  views  and  deceptions.  Nev- 
ertheless, his  heart  suffered  least  upon  the  insecure  road 
of  truth,  and  at  last  he  remained  firm  in  this  resolve. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


News  from  Kuhschnappel.  —  Anticlimax  of  Girls.  —  Opening 
of  the  Seventh  Seal. 


AM  quite  distracted  by  the  thought  that, 
though  we  accept  and  honor  a  bill  drawn  on 
us  by  virtue,  we  yet  never  pay  it  without  so 
many  renewals  and  days  of  grace,  while  the 


Devil,  like  Constantinople,  will  never  hear  of  any. 

Firmian  made  no  further  objections  but  those  of  delay; 
he  only  deferred  his  confession,  and  thought  that,  as 
Apollo  is  the  best  consoler  {paraclete)  of  humanity,  and 
as  Natalie  had  shown  the  basilisk  of  sorrow  its  own  pic- 
ture in  the  mirror  of  poetry,  it  would  naturally  be  killed 
by  the  image.  Thus  are  all  virtuous  impulses  weakened 
in  us  by  the  friction  of  our  inclinations  and  of  time. 
Another  letter  again  threw  all  the  scenes  of  his  theatre 
into  confusion.    It  came  from  the  Schulrath  Stiefel. 

"  High  noble-born,  especially  highly  to  be  respected 
Mr.  Injector,  —  Your  honor  will  recollect  but  too  well, 
that  according  to  the  last  will  and  testament  of  our  mutual 
friend,  the  late  Advocate  of  the  Poor,  Mr.  Siebenkäs, 
Mr.  Heimlicher  von  Blaise  was  to  pay  over  his  inher- 
itance, and,  moreover,  as  you  know,  to  your  worthy  self, 


CHAP  TEE  XXIV. 


317 


in  order  that  you  might  remit  the  moneys  to  the  widow. 
In  case  of  refusal,  the  late  testator  declared  he  would  ap- 
pear as  a  ghost.  Be  that  as  it  may,  thus  much,  at  least, 
is  the  general  gossip  of  the  town,  that  for  some  weeks 
past  a  ghost,  in  the  shape  of  our  late  friend,  has  really 
pursued  the  Heimlicher  everywhere,  who  has  become  so 
bedridden  in  consequence,  that  he  has  taken  the  holy 
sacrament,  and  really  resolved  to  deliver  up  the  above-, 
mentioned  moneys.  I  now  beg  to  ask  you  whether  you 
will  first  receive  them,  or  whether,  as  is  almost  more  nat- 
ural, they  shall  not  be  delivered  at  once  to  the  widow  ?  I 
have  yet  to  mention,  that,  according  to  the  will  of  the  tes- 
tator, I  married  the  latter,  the  late  Madame  Siebenkäs, 
some  time  ago,  and  she  is  now  pregnant.  She  is  an  ex- 
cellent wife  and  housekeeper :  we  live  in  harmony  and 
peace.  She  is  no  Thalaea,*  and  she  would  give  her  life 
for  her  husband  as  gladly  as  he  would  give  his  for  her ; 
and  I  often  wish  for  nothing  so  much  as  that  my  prede- 
cessor, her  good  never-to-be-forgotten  first  husband,  Sie- 
benkäs, who  sometimes  had  his  little  whims,  could  be  a 
spectator  of  the  happiness  in  which  at  present  his  dear 
Lenette  is  swimming.  She  weeps  for  him  every  Sunday 
when  she  passes  across  the  churchyard  ;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  she  confesses  that  her  lot  is  at  present  much  better. 
I  have  had  to  learn  now,  for  the  first  time,  alas  !  the 
wretched  condition  in  which  her  late  husband  lived,  with 
respect  to  his  purse.    How  willingly  would  I  not  have 

*  Thalaea,  the  wife  of  Pinarius,  under  the  government  of  Tarquin- 
ius  Superbus,  was  the  first  who  quarrelled  with  her  mother-in-law, 
Gegania.  Plut.  in  Numa.  German  history  will  perhaps  some  day- 
make  still  more  honorable  mention  of  the  first  wife  who  did  not  quar- 
rel with  her  mother-in-law;  at  least;  a  German  Plutarch  should  be  on 
the  lookout  for  such  a  one. 


3 1 8    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


assisted  him  and  his  wife,  as  becomes  a  Christian,  had  I 
known  it !  If  the  deceased,  who  now  possesses  more  than 
all  of  us,  can,  in  his  glory,  look  down  upon  us,  he  will 
certainly  forgive  me.  I  humbly  beg  for  a  speedy  answer. 
One  cause  of  the  delivery  of  the  inheritance  may  also  be, 
that  Mr.  Heimlicher,  who,  on  the  whole,  is  a  righteous 
man,  is  no  longer  baited  by  Mr.  von  Meyern  ;  they  have 
quite  fallen  out  with  one  another,  as  the  whole  town 
knows  ;  and  the  latter  has  broken  off  his  betrothal  with 
five  ladies  in  Baireuth,  and  is  now  about  to  enter  into  the 
bond  of  holy  wedlock  with  an  inhabitant  of  Kuhschnappel. 

"  My  wife  is  as  angry  with  him  as  Christian  love  per- 
mits ;  and  she  says,  when  he  meets  her,  she  is  like  a 
huntsman  when  he  meets  an  old  woman  in  his  path  in 
the  morning ;  for  he  was  the  cause  of  much  needless 
vexation  between  her  and  her  husband  ;  and  she  often 
relates  to  me  with  pleasure  how  finely  you,  most  es- 
teemed Mr.  Inspector,  oftentimes  unhooded  this  dangerous 
man  :  however,  he  does  not  venture  to  set  his  foot  in  my 
house. 

"  For  the  moment,  I  will  defer  a  yet  more  detailed 
request  as  to  whether  you  will  not  fill  the  vacant  place 
of  the  late  gentleman  as  co-operator  to  the  Messenger  of 
the  Gods  of  German  Programmes,  which,  I  may  say,  is 
taken  with  approval  in  the  gymnasia  and  lyca3a  of  Swabia, 
as  far  as  Nuremberg,  Baireuth,  and  Hof.  There  is  rather 
a  superfluity  than  a  want  of  wretched  programme-lDotch- 
ers  ;  and  you,  therefore,  —  pray  believe  me,  it  is  no  flat- 
tery, —  are  just  the  right  sort  of  man  ;  one  who  would 
know  how  to  swing  the  satirical  scourge  over  such  frog- 
spawn  in  the  Castalian  springs  as  verily  few  others  could 
do.    My  wife  also  adds  her  most  heart-felt  greetings  to 


CHAPTER  XXIV.  319 

the  highly-esteemed  friend  of  her  late  husband ;  and  I 
remain,  in  the  hope  of  a  speedy  answer,  your  honor's 
most  devoted, 

"  S.  R.  Stiepel,  Schulrath." 

By  great  sorrows  the  human  heart  is  protected  against 
small  ones,  —  by  the  waterfall  against  the  rain.  Firmian 
could  now  only  remember,  and  suffer,  and  exclaim  to 
himself,  "  Then  I  have  lost  you  quite  —  forever  !  Oh  ! 
you  were  always  good ;  it  was  I  only  who  was  not  so. 
Be  happier  than  your  lonely  friend,  whom  you,  justly 
mourn  every  Sunday." 

He  now  attributed  the  whole  fault  of  his  former  mat- 
rimonial lawsuits  to  his  satirical  humor,  and  ascribed 
the  failure  of  joys  to  his  own  cloudy  weather.  But  he 
was  now  more  unjust  to  himself  than  he  was  formerly  to 
Lenette. 

I  will  instantly  make  a  present  to  the  world  of  my 
thoughts  upon  the  matter. 

To  girls  love  is  the  sun's  propinquity,  —  yes,  it  is  the 
transition  of  every  such  Venus  through  the  sun  of  the 
ideal  world.  In  this  period  of  the  higher  style  of  their 
souls  they  love  all  that  we  love,  —  even  science, —  and  the 
whole  better  world  within  the  bosom  ;  and  they  despise 
what  we  despise,  —  even  clothes  and  news.  In  this  spring, 
these  nightingales  sing  up  to  the  time  of  the  summer 
solstice.  The  wedding-day  is  their  longest  day.  Then 
the  Devil  fetches  away,  not  everything  indeed,  but  every 
day  a  little  bit.  The  bass-bond  of  marriage  ties  the 
poetical  wings  ;  and  the  marriage-bed  is  for  the  imagina- 
tion an  Engelsburg  and  a  prison  with  bread  and  water 
allowance.    I  have  often  followed  the  poor  bird  of  para- 


320    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

dise,  or  peacock  of  Psyche,  in  the  honeymoon,  and  in 
this  moulting-season  picked  up  the  glorious  feathers  of 
the  wings  and  tail,  which  the  bird  scattered  abroad  ;  and 
afterwards,  when  the  husband  thinks  he  has  married  a 
naked  crow,  I  show  him  the  bunch  of  feathers.  How 
explain  this  ?  Thus :  Marriage  overspreads  the  poetical 
world  with  the  rind  of  the  real  world ;  as,  according  to 
Descartes,  our  earthly  sphere  is  a  sun  overlaid  with  a 
dirty  bark.  The  hands  of  labor  are  awkward,  hard,  and 
full  of  callosities,  and  find  it  difficult  to  continue  to  hold 
or  draw  the  fine  thread  of  the  ideal  woof ;  therefore, 
among  the  higher  ranks,  where  women  in  lieu  of  work- 
rooms have  only  work-baskets,  where  they  turn  the  little 
spinning-wheels  on  their  laps  with  the  finger,  and  where 
love  still  endures  in  marriage,  —  frequently  even  towards 
the  husband  himself,  —  the  marriage-ring  is  not  so  often 
as  among  the  lower  orders  a  Gyges-ring,  which  renders 
books,  and  all  the  arts  of  music,  poetry,  painting,  and 
dancing,  invisible.  Upon  heights,  plants  and  flowers  of 
all  kinds,  especially  female  plants,  become  stronger  and 
more  spicy.  A  woman  is  not  able,  like  a  man,  to  pro- 
tect her  inner  castles  of  air  and  magic  on  the  outer  side 
exposed  to  the  weather.  To  what,  then,  is  the  wife  to 
cling  ?  To  her  husband.  The  husband  must  always  stand 
near  the  liquid  silver  of  the  female  spirit  with  a  spoon, 
and  continually  skim  off  the  scum  which  covers  it,  that 
the  silver  glance  of  the  ideal  may  continue  to  glitter. 

But  there  are  two  species  of  husbands,  —  Arcadians, 
or  lyric  poets  of  life,  who  love  forever,  like  Rousseau, 
even  with  gray  hairs.  Such  are  not  to  be  controlled  or 
comforted  when,  in  the  female  "  flower-wreath,"  bound 
with  gilt-edges,  on  turning  over  the  little  work,  leaf  by 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


321 


leaf,  they  no  longer  see  any  of  the  gold,  as  is  the  case 
with  all  gilt-edged  books. 

Secondly,  there  are  shepherd-swains  and  pastors  of 
itchy  sheep,  —  I  mean  master-minstrels,  or  men  of  busi- 
ness, who  thank  God  when  the  enchantress,  like  other 
sorceresses,  is  at  length  transformed  into  a  grumbling 
house-cat,  which  destroys  the  vermin. 

No  one  has  more  ennui  and  fear  (and  therefore  some 
day  I  will  direct  the  compassion  of  my  readers  to  the  cir- 
cumstance in  a  comic  biography)  than  a  fat,  pompous, 
weighty  bass-singer  of  a  man  of  business,  who,  like  the 
Roman  elephants  in  former  times,  is  forced  to  dance  on 
the  slack-rope  of  love,  and  whose  loving  gestures  and 
play  of  features  I  find  most  perfectly  imaged  in  the  mar- 
mot, who,  when  first  awakened  from  his  winter's  sleep  by 
the  warmth  of  the  room,  finds  it  so  difficult  to  get  into  the 
way  of  moving.  With  widows  alone,  who  are*less  desi- 
rous of  being  loved  than  of  being  married,  a  heavy  man 
of  business  can  begin  his  romance  at  the  point  where  all 
romance-writers  terminate  theirs,  namely,  upon  the  step 
of  the  marriage-altar.  Such  a  man,  built  in  the  simplest 
style,  would  have  a  load  taken  from  his  heart  if  any  one 
would  love  his  shepherdess  for  him,  in  his  name,  so  long 
until  he  had  nothing  else  to  do  in  the  affair  but  to  cele- 
brate the  wedding ;  and  no  one  would  have  more  pleas- 
ure in  relieving  them  of  this  burden  or  cross  than  my- 
self. I  wanted  to  advertise  myself  in  the  public  papers, 
(but  was  afraid  it  might  be  taken  for  a  joke,)  and  an- 
nounce that  I  was  willing  to  swear  platonic  eternal  love 
to  all  endurable  girls  whom  a  man  of  business  has  not 
even  the  time  to  love,  —  to  make  them  the  necessary  de- 
clarations of  love  as  plenipotentiary  of  the  husband  ;  and, 

vol,  11.  14  *  u 


322     FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   T HORN  PIECES. 

in  short,  to  lead  them,  as  substitutes  sine  spe  succedendi, 
or  a.s  company-cavalier,  on  my  arm,  through  the  whole 
uneven  land  of  love,  until,  on  the  borders,  I  should  be 
able  to  deliver  over  my  charge,  ready  prepared,  to  the 
sponsus  (bridegroom).  This  would  then  be  a  love- 
making,  rather  than  a  marriage,  by  ambassadors.  If, 
in  accordance  with  such  a  sy sterna  assistentice,  any  one 
would  wish  to  employ  the  writer  of  this  article  as  feoffee 
and  principal  commissary  even  in  the  honeymoon  itself, 
as  some  love  also  occurs  at  this  period,  he  must  be 
man  of  sense  enough  to  make  the  condition  beforehand, 
that  

In  Siebenkäs's  Lenette,  without  his  being  to  blame, 
the  ideal  isle  of  the  blessed  had  immediately  sunk  down 
miles  deep  before  the  marriage-altar.  The  husband  could 
not  help  it ;  but  neither  could  he  prevent  it.  In  short, 
dear  Mr.  Education  Councillor  Campe,  you  should  not 
strike  with  your  ferula  so  loud  upon  your  writing-desk, 
whenever  a  solitary  female  frog  croaks  forth  something, 
in  the  nearest  pond,  which  may  be  put  into  an  annual. 
Ah  !  do  not  tear  away  from  the  good  creatures  who  em- 
broider the  most  lovely  dreams,  full  of  fancy-blossoms, 
on  the  empty  web  of  life,  the  short  ones  of  a  sentimen- 
tal love  !  They  will,  as  it  is,  too,  too  soon  be  awakened  ; 
and  neither  I  nor  you,  with  all  our  writings,  can  put  them 
again  to  sleep. 

Siebenkäs  answered  the  Schulrath  the  same  day,  in  a 
few  short  and  hasty  lines.  "  He  was  very  glad,"  he  wrote, 
"  that  he  had  kept  to  the  letter  of  the  testament  and 
of  the  laws  ;  and  herewith  enclosed  him  a  power  of 
attorney  to  receive  the  money.  He  merely  begged  him, 
as  a  great  scholar,  who  often  understood  such  matters 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


323 


less  than  he  thought  he  did,  to  let  the  business  be  trans- 
acted by  an  advocate,  since,  without  jurists,  the  jus  is  of 
no  avail,  —  often,  indeed,  of  very  little  even  with  them. 
He  had  no  time  to  review  programmes,  —  not  even  to 
read  them  ;  and  he  begged  to  present  his  respects  to  his 
wife." 

It  is  not  unpleasant  to  me  that  all  my  readers  have 
of  themselves  discovered  that  the  ghost,  or  supernatural 
Wauwau,  or  Mumbo-Jumbo,  who  had  drawn  the  inherit- 
ance-booty out  of  the  claws  of  the  Heimlicher  von  Blaise 
better  than  the  troops  of  the  judicial  courts,  was  no 
other  than  Henry  Leibgeber,  who  availed  himself  of  his 
resemblance  to  the  late  Siebenkäs  to  play  the  revenant. 
I  need  not,  therefore,  tell  the  reader  what  he  is  already 
acquainted  with. 

When  a  man  has  crawled  up  a  steep  Alp  with  the 
hands  of  a  tree-frog,  the  first  prospect  he  obtains  from 
the  summit  is  frequently  into  a  yawning  precipice.  Fir- 
mian  beheld  an  abyss  below  him.  He  was  obliged  to 
abandon  his  former  resolution,  —  I  mean,  he  dare  not 
now  say  a  word  to  his  Natalie  of  his  resurrection  from 
the  charnel-house,  not  a  syllable  of  his  continuance  after 
death. 

Alas !  the  happiness  of  his  Lenette,  who  had  two  hus- 
bands, —  though  quite  innocently,  —  would  then  be  placed 
upon  the  tip  of  a  tongue.  His  would  be  the  fault,  Le- 
nette's  the  misery. 

"  No,  no,"  said  he.  "  Time,  by  degrees,  will  deposit 
dust  upon  my  image  in  Natalie's  good  heart,  and  draw 
out  the  colors."  ^ 

In  short,  he  was  silent:  the  proud  Natalie  was  also 
silent.     In  this   terrible   situation,   close  to  the  hard 


324    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

eternal  knot  of  the  play,  he  passed  his  hours  on  the 
theatre,  full  of  anxiety.  Over  every  charm  of  spring  the 
raven-flight  of  cares  threw  its  juggling  shadow,  and  poi- 
sonous dreams  obtruded  on  his  slumber  like  a  mildew. 
Every  night  of  dreams  cut  asunder  the  falling  planet- 
knot,  and  with  it  his  heart.  How  would  Fate  save  him 
from  this  reek,  this  suffocating  gas  of  anxiety  ?  How 
would  it  heal  the  finger-worm  in  his  wedding-ring  finger  ? 
By  taking  off  his  arm. 

One  long  evening  the  Count,  before  going  to  bed,  was 
as  cordial  and  open  to  him  as  it  is  possible  for  men  of  the 
world  to  be.  He  said  he  had  something  very  pleasant  to 
communicate  to  him,  but  must  first  be  allowed  to  make  a 
remark.  It  had  struck  him,  he  continued,  that  the  Advo- 
cate was  much  less  cheerful  and  humorous,  since  he  had 
entered  upon  his  office,  than  he  was  wont  to  be  in  former 
days.  On  the  contrary,  if  he  might  be  permitted  to  say 
it  openly,  he  was  often  downcast,  and  too  sentimental  ; 
and  yet  he  himself  had  formerly  asserted  (but  this  was 
the  other  Leibgeber)  that  he  would  rather  hear  a  man 
curse  at  a  misfortune  than  lament  over  it ;  and  that  a 
person  might  have  his  feet  sticking  in  the  winter  snow, 
and  yet  have  his  nose  in  the  spring,  and  even  in  the  snow 
smell  a  flower.  "  I  forgive  it  readily  ;  for  I  think  I  guess 
the  cause,"  added  he. 

But  his  pardoning  was  not  quite  true  ;  for  in  this 
he  was  like  the  great  generally,  inasmuch  as  all  strong 
feeling,  even  love,  —  but  most  especially  sorrow,  —  was 
tiresome  to  him  ;  and  a  hearty  hand-squeeze  of  friendship 
was  almos^  as  bad  as  a  tread  on  the  toes.  He  desired 
that  sorrow  should  pass  by  him  smiling,  and  wickedness 
laughing,  or,  at  most,  laughed  at ;  as,  in  fact,  the  coldest 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


men  of  the  world  resemble  the  physical  man,  in  whom 
the  greatest  warmth  is  about  the  region  of  the  dia- 
phragm.* Consequently  the  former  Leibgeber  —  this 
tempestuously  windy,  and,  at  the  same  time,  serene  blue 
sky  —  would  naturally  be  more  agreeable  to  the  Count 
than  the  pretended  one. 

But  how  differently  did  not  this  reproach,  which  we 
read  so  quietly,  affect  our  Siebenkäs  !  He  held  himself 
to  blame  for  this  sun-eclipse  of  his  Leibgeber,  caused  by 
sun-spots  not  his  own,  but  which,  owing  to  his  position, 
proceeded  apparently  from  himself ;  and  he  looked  upon 
them  as  such  heavy  sins  against  his  dear  friend,  that  he 
felt  it  an  absolute  necessity  to  do  penance  and  confess. 

The  Count  now  continued :  "  Your  sensitiveness 
cannot  only  have  reference  to  the  loss  of  your  friend 
Siebenkäs ;  for  since  his  death  you  have  not  spoken  of 
him  as  warmly  to  me  as  you  did  before,  during  his  life- 
time.   Pardon  me  this  frankness." 

Thereupon  a  fresh  pang  at  the  darkening  of  his 
Leibgeber  clouded  his  brow ;  and  he  could  scarcely  con- 
trol himself  sufficiently  to  hear  his  patron  to  an  end. 

"  But  with  me,  best  Leibgeber,  this  is  no  reproach ; 
on  the  contrary,  an  excellence.  One  should  not  grieve 
forever  for  the  dead.  If  we  are  to  grieve  at  all,  it  should 
be  for  the  living.  And  you  may  leave  off  doing  the  lat- 
ter next  week  ;  for  then  my  daughter  is  coming ;  and  " 
(this  he  spoke  with  peculiar  emphasis)  "  she  brings  her 
friend  Natalie  along  with  her,  —  they  met  on  the  road." 

Siebenkäs  jumped  up  hastily,  stood  firm  and  speech- 
less, held  his  hand  before  his  eyes,  not  as  a  screen,  but  as 
a  protection  from  the  light,  in  order  to  overlook  and  pur- 


*  Walter's  Physiology. 


326     FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 

sue  the  piled-up  cloud-masses  of  thoughts  which  rushed 
against  one  another,  before  he  made  his  answer. 

But  the  Count,  who,  thinking  he  was  Leibgeber, 
misconstrued  him  in  all  things,  and  ascribed  his  sensi- 
tive metamorphosis  to  his  hopeless  love  for  Natalie, 
begged  him,  before  he  spoke,  to  hear  him  to  an  end, 
and  accept  his  assurance  of  the  pleasure  it  would  give 
him  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  retain  the  lovely  friend  of 
his  daughter  in  his  neighborhood.  Heavens !  what  a 
confusion  thrice  confounded  the  Count  made  of  what 
was  so  simple! 

Siebenkäs,  blown  upon  tempestuously  from  new  quar- 
ters of  the  compass,  was  obliged  to  beg  one  minute's 
time  for  deliberation ;  for  the  peace  of  three  souls  was 
now  at  stake.  But  he  had  scarcely  made  a  few  hasty 
paces  through  the  room,  when  he  again  stood  firm,  and 
said  to  himself:  "Yes,  I  shall  do  right!"  Then  he 
begged  the  Count  to  give  him  his  word  of  honor  to  pre- 
serve inviolate  a  secret  he  was  about  to  confide  to  him, 
which  neither  regarded  nor  injured  himself  or  his  daugh- 
ter in  the  least. 

"  In  that  case,  why  not  ?  "  answered  the  Count ;  for 
whom  the  revelation  of  a  secret  was  as  the  clearing  away 
of  a  forest  before  a  fine  expansive  prospect. 

Then  Firmian  opened  his  heart,  his  life,  and  every- 
thing. It  was  a  stream  let  loose,  which  rushes  into  a 
new  channel,  and  is  not  yet  to  be  measured  with  the 
eye.  Many  times  the  Count  delayed  him  by  a  new 
misunderstanding  ;  for  he  had  only  invented  the  love  of 
Natalie  to  the  real  Leibgeber  as  seeming  to  him  proba- 
ble, and  had  not  heard  a  word  from  any  one  about  the 
true  love  she  bore  to  Firmian. 


CHAPTER  .XXIV. 


327 


It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  astonished  Count  to  sur- 
prise the  Advocate.  Among  the  many  expressions 
which,  under  such  circumstances,  his  face  might  have 
worn,  —  offended,  angry,  shocked,  embarrassed,  enrap- 
tured, cold,  —  the  only  expression  was  one  of  the  greatest 
contentment. 

He  was  particularly  pleased,  he  said,  that  he  had 
noticed  and  taken  umbrage  at  so  many  little  things; 
and  that  in  some  respects  he  had  not  thought  too  well 
of  Leibgeber,  in  others  with  too  blind  a  partiality ;  but 
most  of  all,  he  was  charmed  with  the  good  fortune  of 
having  in  this  manner  a  double  Leibgeber,  and  of  know- 
ing that  the  traveller  was  not  grieving  for  a  dead  friend. 

Let  no  one  be  surprised  at  the  tranquillity  of  the 
Count,  who  has  seen  a  bright  order-star  sparkling  upon 
an  old,  extinguished  breast.  When  our  old  man  of  the 
world  looked  upon  the  shuttle  of  this  friendly  chain  fly- 
ing to  and  fro,  the  love  and  sacrifice  on  both  sides,  and 
held  the  bright  Raphael's  tapestry  of  friendship  that  had 
been  woven  by  them  in  his  hands,  and  looked  upon  it,  he 
received,  for  the  first  time  in  so  many  years,  a  new  en- 
joyment ;  for  he  found  that  he  had  hitherto  been  sitting 
in  his  front  box  before  a  living  comic  historic  drama,  of 
which  he  himself  finely  developed  the  plot,  and  which 
at  any  moment  could  be  enacted  over  again  in  his  head. 

His  Inspector  also  became  for  him  a  new  being,  full 
of  fresh  entertainment,  by  his  having  gone  off  the  stage, 
changed  his  dress,  and  stepped  again  into  the  room  in 
the  character  of  the  pseudo-late  Siebenkäs,  who  in  future 
could  not  narrate  to  him  too  much  of  the  narrator  him- 
self. 

He  who  has  enjoyed  the  bliss  of  remaining  truthful 


328    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

can  understand  the  pleasure  it  gave  Siebenkäs  to  be 
enabled  once  more  to  express  himself  without  restraint 
upon  all  that  concerned  himself,  Henry,  and  Natalie, 
inasmuch  as  he  now,  for  the  first  time,  felt  the  full 
weight  of  the  burden  he  had  cast  off,  —  of  working  out 
the  jesting  deception  of  a  minute  into  the  drama  of  a 
year,  containing  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  acts.  How 
easy  it  was  for  him  now  to  make  known  to  the  Count 
that,  before  the  arrival  of  Natalie,  whom  he  would  neither 
continue  to  deceive,  nor  yet  could  undeceive,  he  would 
depart,  and  betake  himself  straightway  to  the  imperial 
market-town  Kuhschnappel ! 

As  the  Count  listened  to  him  with  surprise,  Firmian 
told  him  all  the  motives  that  urged  him  to  go:  a  longing 
desire  to  visit  his  tombstone  and  unhallowed  grave,  in 
order,  as  it  were,  to  make  expiation,  —  a  longing  to  see 
Lenette  from  afar,  himself  unseen,  perhaps  even  to  see 
her  child  quite  near,  —  a  longing  to  hear  the  true  account 
of  the  happiness  of  her  married  life  from  eyewitnesses ; 
for  Stiefel's  letter  had  wafted  the  flower-ashes  of  former 
days  into  his  eyes,  and  opened  the  leaves  of  the  sleeping 
flower  of  his  conjugal  love,  —  a  longing  to  wander  about 
the  theatre  of  his  former  oppressed  condition  erect,  now 
that  his  burden  was  cast  off,  —  a  longing  to  hear  in  the 
market-town  some  news  of  his  Leibgeber,  who  had  lately 
been  there,  —  a  longing  to  celebrate  the  month  of  his 
death,  August,  in  solitude.  He  had  been  treated  like 
the  vine,  from  which  in  August  the  leaves  are  plucked 
off,  that  the  sun  may  beam  more  warmly  upon  the  grapes. 

In  a  word  —  for  why  adduce  many  reasons,  since, 
when  all  that  is  required  is  a  will,  there  cannot  after- 
wards be  a  lack  of  reasons  ?  —  he  departed. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


The  Joueney.  —  The  Churchyard.  —  The  Ghost.  —  The  End 
op  the  Misery,  and  of  the  Book. 

PERCEIVE  every  day  more  clearly  that  I 
and  the  other  999,999,999  *  men  are  nothing 
but  little  things  filled  with  contradictions,  with 
incurable  nullities,  and  with  resolutions  every 
one  of  which  has  its  opposing  muscle  (muse,  antagonistd). 
We  do  not  contradict  others  half  so  often  as  ourselves : 
this  last  chapter  is  a  new  proof  of  it.  The  reader  and  I 
have  hitherto  only  labored  to  conclude  the  book  ;  and 
now  that  we  are  about  to  do  so,  it  is  much  against  the 
will  of  both  of  us.  I  shall  at  least  do  something,  if,  to 
the  best  of  my  ability,  I  in  some  sort  conceal  its  end,  like 
the  end  of  a  garden,  which  is  also  full  of  flower-pieces,  and 
say  one  or  two  things  which,  at  any  rate,  will  lengthen 
the  work  a  little. 

The  Inspector  hastened,  with  the  fortress  of  a  mus- 
cular full  breast,  into  the  open  air,  among  the  ears  of 
corn.  The  nightmare  of  silence  and  deceit  no  longer 
weighed  upon  him  so  heavily :  the  avalanche  of  his  life 
had  melted  away,  at  least  to  a  third  of  its  size,  beneath 

*  One  thousand  millions  crawl  upon  this  sphere. 


33°    FLOWER,   FRUIT,  AND   THORN  PIECES. 


the  sun  of  his  present  good  fortune.  His  having  become 
electrically  plated  with  a  rich  income,  and  even  the  in- 
creased number  of  his  occupations,  had  charged  him  with 
fire  and  courage.  His  appointment  was  a  mountain, 
traversed  by  so  many  veins  of  gold  and  silver,  that  he 
was  already  enabled  in  this  first  year  to  send  anonymous 
subscriptions  to  the  Prussian  Widow's  Provident  Fund 
Society,  in  order  first  to  halve  his  fraud,  and  soon  to  do 
away  with  and  compensate  it  altogether. 

I  would  not  bring  this  act  of  duty  before  the  eyes  of 
the  public  at  all,  had  I  not  to  fear  that  Kritter,  in  Güt- 
tingen, who  refers  the  closing  of  this  fund  to  the  year 
1804,  or  even  more  moderate  calculators,  who  place  its 
last  unction  in  the  year  1825,  might  take  advantage  of 
my  Flower-pieces  to  lay  the  death-dance  of  the  Widow's 
Fond  to  the  charge  of  the  Inspector.  I  should  then  ex- 
tremely regret  having  mentioned  the  matter  at  all  in  my 
Flower-pieces. 

He  did  not  take  his  way  through  Hof  or  Baireuth, 
and  the  romantic  roads  of  his  former  journeys,  fearing 
lest  the  hand  of  Fate,  which  sows  behind  the  clouds, 
should  conduct  his  apparition-body  towards  Natalie  ; 
and  yet  he  cherished  a  slight  hope  that  the  same  hand 
would  lead  him  so  that  he  might  chance  to  meet  his 
Leibgeber,  as  the  latter  had  been  cruising  lately  in  the 
waters  of  Kuhschnappel.  As  it  was,  he  had  put  on 
again,  while  on  the  road,  the  shirt,  jacket,  and  whole 
exterior  body  which  he  had  received  from  him  in  ex- 
change in  the  inn  at  Gefrees  ;  and  the  dress  was  a  mir- 
ror, which  continually  showed  him  his  absent  friend. 
A  Saufinder,  like  Leibgeber's,  which  lifted  up  his  head 
in  a  forester's  house  to  look  at  him  as  he  passed,  sent  a 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


331 


thrill  of  joy  through  his  heart ;  but  the  dog's  nose  knew 
him  as  little  as  its  master. 

However,  the  nearer  he  approached  the  mountains 
and  woods,  behind  whose  Chinese  churchyard  wall  lay 
his  two  empty  houses,  —  his  grave  and  his  room,  —  the 
closer  did  anxiety  draw  its  drag-net  about  his  heart. 
It  was  not  the  fear  of  being  known  (owing  to  his  present 
resemblance  to  Leibgeber  this  was  impossible)  ;  indeed, 
he  wouM  have  been  taken  for  his  own  ghost  and  prophet 
Samuel  sooner  than  for  the  still  living  Siebenkäs  ;  but, 
besides  love  and  expectation,  there  was  another  cause 
of  his  anxiety,  by  which  I  myself  was  once  oppressed 
while  travelling  among  the  Herculanean  antiquities  of 
my  childhood.  The  iron  bands  and  rings  which  had 
cramped  my  bosom  in  childhood,  when,  helpless  and 
inconsolable,  the  little  man  trembles  before  the  sorrows 
and  pains  of  life  and  death,  tightened  round  it  once 
more.  We  then  stand  midway  between  the  footstool  we 
have  cast  away,  the  handcuffs  and  foot-chains  which  we 
have  burst  asunder,  and  the  lofty,  rustling  liberty-tree  of 
philosophy,  which  conducts  us  into  the  free  open  battle- 
arena  and  into  the  coronation-city  of  earth. 

On  every  bush,  near  which  he  had  formerly  strolled 
during  his  poor,  empty  vintage-autumn,  Firmian  beheld 
the  cast-off  skin  of  the  snakes  hanging,  which  had  for- 
merly coiled  about  his  feet. 

Remembrance,  this  after-winter  of  the  hard,  cruel 
days,  fell  in  the  happier  season  of  his  life,  and  these 
dissimilar  feelings  —  the  pressure  of  his  former  fetters 
and  his  present  atmosphere  of  liberty  —  generated  a  third 
sentiment,  which  was  bitter,  sweet,  and  anxious,  at  the 
same  time. 


332    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


In  the  twilight  he  went  slowly  and  attentively  through 
the  streets  of  the  town,  strewn  with  scattered  ears  of 
corn.  Every  child  that  passed  him  with  the  evening 
beer,  every  dog  he  recognized,  and  every  familiar  sound 
of  the  clock-bells,  were  full  of  fossil-impressions  of  joy,  — 
flowers  and  passion-flowers,  whose  originals  had  long  ago 
crumbled  to  decay.  As  he  passed  by  his  former  abode, 
he  heard  the  creaking  and  rattling  of  two  stocking-looms. 
He  took  up  his  quarters  in  the  hotel  of  the  Lizard,  which 
cannot  have  been  the  grandest  hotel  of  the  market- 
town,  since  the  Advocate  got  his  beef  there  upon  a  pew- 
ter plate,  which,  according  to  the  cuts  and  marks  received 
from  a  fac-simile  of  his  own  knife,  had  inscribed  itself  a 
member  of  his  pawned  plate-committee  ;  however,  the 
hotel  possessed  this  advantage,  that  Firmian  could  oc- 
cupy the  little  rooms  on  the  third  story,  whence  he  was 
enabled  to  establish  an  observatory,  or  mast-head  of  ob- 
servation, upon  the  study  of  Stiefel,  which  was  situated 
lower,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  way.  But  his  Lenette 
did  not  come  to  the  window.  Oh !  if  he  had  seen  her, 
he  would  have  knelt  down  in  the  room  for  very  yearn- 
ing and  sadness  !  However,  when  it  became  very  dark, 
he  only  saw  his  old  friend  Pelzstiefel  hold  a  printed 
paper  6ut  of  the  window  against  the  light  of  the  sunset 
sky,  —  probably  a  proof-sheet  of  the  Advertiser  of  Ger- 
man Programmes. 

He  was  surprised  that  the  Schulrath  seemed  so  worn 
and  thin,  and  wore  a  crape  round  his  arm.  "  Per- 
haps the  poor  child  of  my  Lenette  is  already  dead ! " 
thought  he. 

Late  at  night  he  crept  out  to  the  garden  whence 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


333 


not  every  one  returns,  and  alongside  of  which  lies  the 
hanging  Eden-garden  of  the  next  life. 

In  the  churchyard  he  was  secured  against  the  ap- 
proach of  spectators  by  the  ghost-stories  by  which  Leib- 
geber  had  forced  his  inheritance  out  of  the  hands  of  his 
guardian.  As  he  could  not  approach  his  empty  subter- 
ranean bed  at  once,  he  first  passed  by  the  grave  of  the 
woman  who  had  died  in  childbed,  upon  the  then  dark 
but  now  grassy  hillock  of  which  he  had  planted  the 
wreath  of  flowers  that  was  to  have  given  an  unexpected 
pleasure  to  his  Lenette's  heart,  but  gave  her,  on  the  con- 
trary, an  unexpected  sorrow.  At  last  he  came  to  the 
bed-curtains  of  the  grave-siesta,  —  to  his  gravestone,  the 
inscription  of  which  he  read  with  a  cold  shudder. 

"  Suppose  this  stone  trap-door  lay  upon  your  face, 
and  covered  the  whole  dome  of  heaven  ? "  said  he  to 
himself ;  and  he  thought  of  the  clouds,  the  cold,  and  the 
night,  that  reigned  around  the  poles  of  life  —  the  birth 
and  death  of  man  —  as  round  the  poles  of  the  earth.  He 
now  looked  upon  his  mockery  of  the  last  hour  as  a  sin. 
The  moon  was  overcast  by  the  mourning  streamer  of  a 
long  dark  cloud.  His  heart  was  oppressed  and  softened, 
when  suddenly  something  bright,  that  glittered  near  his 
grave,  attracted  his  attention,  and  caused  a  revulsion  in 
his  whole  soul. 

There  he  beheld  a  fresh,  lately-covered  grave  in  a 
wooden  painted  frame,  somewhat  like  a  bedstead.  Upon 
these  colored  boards  Firmian  read,  as  long  as  his 
streaming  eyes  would  permit  him,  the  following  in- 
scription :  — 


334    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


"  Here  reposes  in  God 
Wendeline  Lenette  Stiefel, 
Born  Egelkraut  of  Augsburg. 
Her  first  husband  was  the  late  Advocate  of  the  Poor, 
Firmian  Stanislaus  Siebenkäs: 
She  entered  into  the  holy  bond  of  wedlock,  for  the  second  time, 
with  the  Schulrath  Stiefel,  of  this  place,  Oct.  20,  1786; 
And,  after  passing  three  quarters  of  a  year  with  him  in  a  peaceful 
union, 

She  died  in  childbed,  July  22,  1787, 
And  lies  here  with  her  little  still-born  daughter, 
waiting  for  a  happy  resurrection." 

"  0  thou  poor  one  !  thou  poor  one ! "  He  could  think 
no  more.  Just  when  her  day  of  life  was  brighter  and 
warmer,  the  earth  swallows  her  up,  and  she  carries  noth- 
ing to  the  grave  but  a  hand  roughened  by  labor,  a  face 
furrowed  by  the  bed  of  sickness,  and  a  contented  but 
empty  heart,  which,  pressed  down  into  the  hollow  ways 
and  mine-shafts  of  earth,  had  seen  so  few  flowery  mead- 
ows, so  few  stars.  Her  sufferings  had  always  enveloped 
her  so  closely,  darkly,  and  gigantically,  that  no  picturing 
imagination  could  soften  and  beautify  them  by  the  shifting 
colors  of  poesy,  —  as  no  rainbow  is  possible  when  it  rains 
over  the  whole  sky. 

"  Why  have  I  so  often  pained  you  even  by  my  death, 
and  shown  so  little  indulgence  to  your  innocent  humors  ?  " 
said  he,  weeping  bitterly. 

He  threw  a  worm  that  crept  and  curled  out  of  the 
grave,  far  away,  as  though  it  had  just  come,  after  having 
satiated  itself,  from  the  beloved  cold  heart.  Whereas 
it  is  satiated  by  what  at  last  satiates  us  —  earth.  He 
thought  of  the  mouldering  child,  which  laid  its  withered 
thin  arms  around  his  soul,  as  if  it  were  his  own,  and  to 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


335 


whom  Death  had  given  as  much  as  a  god  gave  to  En- 
dymion, —  sleep,  eternal  youth,  and  immortality.  At  last 
he  tottered  away  from  the  place  of  mourning,  his  heart 
not  lightened,  but  fatigued  by  the  tears  he  had  shed. 

When  he  entered  the  hotel,  he  found  a  woman  in  the 
public  room  singing  to  the  harp,  accompanied  by  a  little 
flute-player.  The  burden  of  her  song  was  :  "  Dead  is 
dead,  gone  is  gone  !  "  It  was  the  same  musician  who 
had  performed  on  the  harp  and  sung  on  New  Year's  eve, 
when  his  Lenette,  now  laid  low  and  appeased,  had  buried 
her  grief-worn  face  in  her  handkerchief,  weeping,  and 
forsaken. 

Oh !  the  fiery  arrows  of  the  tones  pierced  hissing 
through  his  wounded  heart.  The  poor  fellow  had  no 
shield. 

"  How  terribly,  incessantly  I  then  tortured  her ! " 
said  he  ;  "  how  much  she  sighed  !  how  silent  she  was ! 
Oh  !  if  thou  couldst  but  look  down  upon  me  from  above, 
now  that  thou  art  certainly  happier !  Couldst  thou  but 
see  into  my  bleeding  soul,  not  to  forgive  me,  no,  but  only 
that  I  might  have  the  consolation  of  suffering  for  thy 
sake  !  0,  how  differently  would  I  behave  towards  thee 
now ! " 

Such  is  the  language  we  all  use  when  we  have  buried 
those  whom  we  have  tortured ;  but  on  the  same  evening 
of  affliction  we  cast  the  javelin  deep  into  another  bosom 
that  is  still  warm.  Alas  for  us  weak  ones  with  strong 
resolutions  !  If  the  cold,  senseless  form,  whose  festering 
wounds,  inflicted  by  ourselves,  we  expiate  with  penitent 
tears  and  resolutions  to  do  better,  were  this  day  again 
to  appear  amongst  us,  new-created  and  blooming  in 
youth,  and  remain  with  us, — alas  !  only  in  the  first  week 


336    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

should  we  press  the  newly  found,  dearer  soul  forgivingly 
to  our  bosoms  ;  and  afterwards,  as  before,  we  should 
pierce  it  with  the  old  sharp  instruments  of  torture.  That 
we  should  thus  act  towards  our  beloved  dead  I  deduce 
from  the  fact,  not  merely  of  our  hardness  towards  the 
living,  but  of  our  acting  over  again  in  our  dreams,  when 
the  lost  forms  revisit  us,  all  that  we  now  repent.  Far 
from  me  be  the  wish  to  deprive  a  mourner  of  the  conso- 
lation of  repentance,  or  of  the  feeling  that  he  loves  the 
lost  being  more  deeply  and  better,  —  I  would  only  weaken 
the  pride  that  may  be  built  upon  this  repentance  and  this 
feeling. 

Later  in  the  evening,  when  Firmian  beheld  the  sunk 
and  grief-worn  countenance  of  his  old  friend,  whose  heart 
possessed  so  little  more  on  earth,  looking  towards  heaven, 
as  if  seeking  there,  among  the  stars,  the  friend  of  whom 
he  had  been  deprived,  sorrow  pressed  the  last  tear  from 
his  wrung  heart,  and  in  the  madness  of  grief  he  even 
accused  himself  of  being  the  cause  of  his  friend's  suffer- 
ings, forgetting  that,  before  he  could  forgive,  the  latter 
would  have  to  thank  him.  He  awoke,  fatigued  by  the 
sorrow  he  had  endured,  that  is,  with  that  bleeding  away 
of  the  feelings  which  at  last  melts  into  a  sweet  fainting 
and  longing  for  death. 

He  had  lost  everything,  even  that  which  was  not 
buried.  He  dared  not  visit  the  Schulrath,  for  fear  of 
betraying  himself,  and  thus  endangering  the  peace  of  the 
innocent  man,  by  staking  it  upon  a  dubious  chance  ;  for 
Stiefel  would  never  have  been  able  to  reconcile  his  ortho- 
dox conscience,  nor  yet  his  feelings  of  honor,  to  his  mar- 
riage with  a  woman  who  was  already  a  wedded  wife. 

But  he  could  visit  the  hair-dresser,  Merbitzer,  with  less 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


337 


danger  of  betraying  himself,  and  carry  away  from  him  a 
richer  treasury  of  news.  Besides,  together  with  the  bands 
of  love,  the  scythe  of  death  had  cut  asunder  all  his  chains 
and  knots  :  he  could  now  injure  no  one  but  himself  by 
taking  off  his  death's  mask  and  showing  himself  uncor- 
rected to  others,  even  to  his  sorrowing  Natalie  ;  and  he 
was  the  more  impelled  to  do  so,  as,  on  every  lovely  even- 
ing, and  after  every  good  deed,  his  conscience  demanded 
of  him  the  interest  in  arrears  of  the  still  unpaid  debt  of 
Truth,  and  refused  to  grant  any  further  respite.  His 
soul  also  swore,  like  a  god  to  his  soul,  that  he  would  only 
linger  this  one  day,  and  never  return  again. 

By  his  lameness,  the  hair-dresser  immediately  knew 
that  it  could  be  no  other  than  the  Inspector  of  Vaduz, 
Leibgeber.  Like  posterity,  he  heaped  the  thickest  rose- 
mary crowns  upon  his  former  lodger,  Siebenkäs,  and 
declared  that  the  present  tenants  of  his  room,  good-for- 
nothing  stocking-weavers,  were  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  late  gentleman  ;  adding,  that  the  whole  house  cracked 
when  they  stamped  and  creaked  above  stairs.  He  then 
informed  him  that  the  late  gentleman  had  fetched  away 
his  wife  within  the  year ;  that  the  latter  could  never  for- 
get Merbitzer's  house  ;  that  she  often  came  at  night  in 
her  mourning  dress,  in  which  also  she  desired  to  be 
buried,  and  conversed  with  them  about  her  change  of 
life.  "  They  lived  together,"  said  the  hair-dresser,  "  like 
two  children,"  i.  e.  she  and  Stiefel. 

The  conversation,  the  house,  and  lastly  his  own  apart- 
ment, now  so  noisy,  revealed  nothing  but  the  deserted 
places  of  his  destroyed  Jerusalem.  Where  his  writing- 
table  had  stood,  there  was  now  a  stocking-loom,  &c.  ;  and 
all  his  inquiries  concerning  the  past  were  like  the  relics 

vol.  ii.  15  v 


338    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 

of  a  conflagration  collected  together  in  order  to  rebuild 
the  burnt-down  pleasure-houses  from  their  phoenix-ashes. 
Hope  is  the  morning  red  of  joy,  and  memory  its  evening 
red  ;  but  the  latter  is  so  apt  to  drop  down  as  faded  gray 
dew,  or  rain,  and  the  blue  day,  promised  by  the  red, 
breaks  indeed,  but  in  another  earth,  with  another  sun. 
Merbitzer  unconsciously  cut  deep  and  wide  the  split  in 
Firmian's  heart,  into  which  he  grafted  the  sundered  blos- 
som-twigs of  bygone  days  ;  and  when,  in  conclusion,  his 
wife  related  that,  after  receiving  the  last  sacrament  of 
the  sick,  Lenette  had  inquired  of  the  evening-preacher, 
"  Shall  I  not  join  my  Firmian  after  my  death  ?  "  Fir- 
mian  turned  away  his  breast  from  these  unwitting  dag- 
ger-thrusts, and  hastened  away,  but  into  the  country,  that 
he  might  not  meet  any  one  whom  he  would  have  to 
deceive. 

And  yet  he  longed  for  a  human  being,  even  though  he 
could  not  find  one  anywhere  but  beneath  his  lowest  roof 
in  the  churchyard.  The  murky  and  sultry  atmosphere 
of  the  evening  called  into  being  all  sorts  of  melancholy 
wishes.  The  heavens  were  overspread  with  scattered 
unripe  fragments  of  a  thunder-cloud,  and  in  the  eastern 
horizon  a  muttering  storm  already  flung  its  blazing  pitch- 
torches  and  full  clouds  upon  unknown  regions.  He  went 
home ;  but  as  he  passed  the  high  railings  of  Blaise's  gar- 
den, he  thought  he  perceived  a  figure  dressed  in  black, 
resembling  Natalie,  slip  into  the  arbor.  He  now,  for  the 
first  time,  paid  attention  to  the  information  previously  re- 
ceived from  Merbitzer,  that  a  few  days  ago  a  noble  lady, 
in  mourning,  had  made  him  show  her  all  the  rooms  in  his 
house,  and  had  lingered  particularly  in  that  of  Siebenkäs, 
making  at  the  time  all  sorts  of  inquiries.    It  was  not  at 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


339 


all  improbable,  indeed  it  was  quite  consistent  with  Na- 
talie's bold  and  romantic  manner  of  thinking,  that  she 
should  have  come  out  of  her  way  on  her  road  to  Vaduz, 
especially  as  she  had  never  seen  Firmian's  dwelling- 
place,  and  the  Inspector  had  returned  her  no  answer. 
Rosa,  too,  was  married ;  and  Blaise  had  become  recon- 
ciled to  her  since  the  visit  of  the  apparition  ;  and  what 
could  be  more  natural  than  that  the  anniversary  of 
Firmian's  death  should  stimulate  her  to  undertake  a 
pilgrimage  to  his  last  place  of  refuge? 

The  mind  of  her  friend  consequently  dwelt  on  the 
thought  of  her  during  the  whole  evening  with  feelings 
of  painful  fond  recollection,  for  she  was  the  one  only 
unshrouded  star  that  still  beamed  on  him  from  the  over- 
cast sky  of  his  former  days.  It  now  grew  dusk,  and 
there  was  a  cool  breeze.  The  thunder-storms  had  al- 
ready spent  their  force  in  other  lancte ;  lurid,  broken 
clouds  alone  remained,  as  it  were  glowing  half-consumed 
firebrands  piled  one  upon  the  other  in  the  sky.  He  now 
went,  for  the  last  time,  to  the  spot  where  death  had 
planted  the  red  carnation,  cut  off  together  with  its  bud ; 
but,  as  in  outward  nature,  the  heaviness  of  his  soul  was 
lightened,  and  the  atmosphere  was  fresher ;  tears  had 
diluted  the  first  bitterness  of  his  sorrow.  He  could  now 
feel  with  softened  grief  that  this  earth  is  not  the  building- 
ground  of  humanity,  only  the  spot  where  it  is  fitted  and 
fashioned. 

In  the  east  a  long  blue  streak,  with  rising  stars, 
gleamed  above  the  fallen  thunder-clouds.  The  moon, 
the  light-magnet  of  the  sky,  reposed  like  a  fountain  of 
beams  upon  the  foil  of  a  split  cloud,  and  the  wide-spread 
veil  melted  away,  and  moved  not. 


340    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


When  Firmian,  on  nearing  the  beloved  grave,  raised 
his  drooping  head,  he  perceived  a  black  figure  resting  on 
it.  He  stopped  short,  —  gazed  more  piercingly;  it,  was 
the  form  of  a  woman,  who  looked  fixedly  at  him,  with  a 
face  cast  and  frozen  in  the  ice  of  death.  On  approaching 
still  more  closely,  he  beheld  his  beloved  Natalie,  quite 
overcome  and  unconscious,  leaning  against  the  painted 
railings  of  the  grave  ;  her  lips  and  cheeks  were  over- 
spread with  an  ashy  hue  from  the  autumn-breath  of 
death,  —  her  open  eyes  saw  nothing  ;  but  the  tear-drops 
that  still  hung  from  them  showed  that  she  had  lately 
been  alive,  and  that  she  had  taken  him  for  the  apparition 
of  which  she  had  heard  so  much.  In  the  excess  of  her 
sorrow  above  his  tomb,  she  had  longed,  in  the  strength 
and  loneliness  of  her  heart,  for  the  vision  to  appear  ;  and 
when  she  saw  him  come,  she  believed  that  Fate  had 
granted  her  desire,  and  then  the  iron  hand  of  freezing 
horror  grasped  her,  and  squeezed  the  red  rose  to  a 
white  one.  O,  it  was  her  friend  who  was  most  unhappy ; 
his  tender,  unsheltered  heart  was  crushed  between  two 
worlds,  which  rushed  together.  With  a  wailing,  pitiful 
voice,  he  cried  out,  "  Natalie  !  Natalie  !  " 

Her  lips  opened  convulsively,  and  a  breath  of  life  gave 
warmth  to  the  eye  ;  but  when  she  saw  the  dead  man  still 
standing  before  her,  she  closed  her  eyes  again,  and  ex- 
claimed, shuddering,  "  O  God  !  " 

In  vain  did  the  sound  of  his  voice  call  her  back  to  life. 
No  sooner  did  she  look  up  than  her  heart  froze  again  at 
sight  of  the  terrifying  apparition  near  her,  and  she  could 
do  nothing  but  sigh,  kt  O  God  !  " 

Firmian  seized  her  hand,  and  cried  out,  "  Angel  of 
heaven,  I  am  not  dead,  —  I  did  not  die,  —  only  look  at 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


341 


me  !  Natalie,  dost  thou  no  longer  know  me  ?  O  merciful 
God  !  punish  me  not  so  terribly  ;  deprive  her  not  of  life 
through  me ! " 

At  length  she  slowly  opened  her  languid  eyelids,  and 
saw  her  old  friend  trembling  at  her  side,  weeping  with 
terror,  and  his  changing  countenance  distorted  by  the 
poisonous  stings  of  agony.  He  wept  more,  but  never- 
theless felt  a  gleam  of  joy  as  she  still  kept  her  eyes 
open,  and,  smiling  upon  her  with  a  painful  expression  of 
sympathy,  he  said,  k<  Natalie,  I  am  still  upon  the  earth, 
and  suffer  as  much  as  you  do.  See  you  not  how  I 
tremble  on  your  account  ?  Touch  my  warm  human 
hand  !    Are  you  still  afraid  ?  " 

"  No,"  she  said,  languidly ;  but  continued  to  look 
shyly  at  him  as  upon  a  supernatural  being,  and  had  not 
courage  to  ask  an  explanation  of  the  riddle.  He  assisted 
her,  with  gently  flowing  tears,  to  rise,  and  said,  "  O, 
quit  this  place  of  sorrow,  innocent  one  !  too  many  tears 
have  fallen  upon  it.  My  heart  has  now  no  further  secret 
to  keep  from  yours.  Ah,  now  I  can  and  will  tell  you 
all ! " 

He  led  her  out  over  the  silent  dead,  through  the  back 
gate  of  the  churchyard  ;  but  she  still  hung  heavily  and 
languidly  on  his  arm  as  she  ascended  the  nearest  hill,  and 
continually  shuddered  ;  only  the  tears  which  joy,  relief 
from  terror,  grief,  and  lassitude,  conjointly  pressed  from 
her  eyes,  fell  like  warm  balsam  upon  her  chilled  and 
sorely  wounded  heart. 

Upon  the  height  so  painfully  gained,  the  sufferer 
seated  herself,  and  the  black  forests  of  the  night,  railed 
in  by  white  harvests,  and  crossed  by  the  moon's  silent 
sea  of  light,  lay  spread  before  them.  Nature  had  touched 


342    FLOWER,  FRUIT,  AND  THORN  PIECES. 


the  subdued  pedal  of  midnight,  and  near  Natalie  there 
stood  a  beloved  one,  risen  from  the  grave.  He  now 
related  to  her  Leibgeber's  entreaties,  the  short  history 
of  his  mock-death,  his  residence  with  the  Count,  all  the 
desires  and  sorrows  of  his  long  solitude,  the  firm  resolve 
he  had  taken  rather  to  fly  from  her  than  to  deceive  and 
wound  her  beautiful  heart,  either  by  word  of  mouth  or 
by  writing,  and  the  revelation  he  had  already  made  to 
the  father  of  her  friend.  The  narration  of  his  last 
moments,  and  of  his  final  separation  from  Lenette,  made 
her  sob  as  though  it  had  all  been  real.  Many  thoughts 
thronged  upon  her  mind,  but  she  merely  said,  "  Ah,  you 
only  sacrificed  yourself  for  the  happiness  of  others,  not 
for  your  own  ;  but  now  you  will  lay  aside  and  compen- 
sate all  your  deceptions." 

"  All,  as  far  as  I  can,"  said  he  ;  "  my  bosom  and 
my  conscience  will  again  become  free.  Have  not  I  even 
kept  the  oath  I  made  to  you,  not  to  see  you  until  after 
my  death  ?  " 

She  gave  him  a  gentle  smile. 

They  both  sunk  into  a  dreamy  silence.  All  at  once, 
as  she  placed  a  mourning-cloak*  butterfly,  which  was 
paralyzed  by  the  cold  dew,  upon  her  lap,  he  was  struck 
by  her  own  mourning  attire,  and  inquired,  somewhat 
hastily,  "  But  you,  I  hope,  are  not  in  mourning  for  any- 
body ?  " 

Alas  !  she  had  assumed  it  on  his  account. 

Natalie  answered,  "  Not  now " ;  and,  looking  at  the 
butterfly  compassionately,  added,  "  A  few  drops  and  a 
little  cold  paralyze  the  poor  thing." 

Her  friend  thought  how  easily  destiny  might  have 
*  A  day-butterfly,  having  black  wings  with  white  borders. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


343 


punished  his  boldness  by  paralyzing  the  more  beautiful, 
but  equally  mourning-clad  being  at  his  side,  who,  in- 
deed, had  already  trembled  in  the  night-frosts  of  life  and 
in  the  night-dew  of  cold  tears  ;  but  love  and  sorrow  pre- 
vented him  from  answering  her. 

They  remained  silent,  mutually  occupied  in  divining 
one  another's  thoughts,  and  lost  half  in  their  hearts, 
half  in  the  sublime  night.  The  wide  ether  had  ab- 
sorbed all  the  clouds,  —  only  those  of  the  sky,  alas ! 
Luna,  with  her  saintly  halo,  like  a  glorified  Madonna, 
inclined  herself  from  the  serene  blue  towards  her  pale 
sister  on  earth.  The  stream  flowed"on  unseen  beneath  a 
low  fog,  as  the  stream  of  time  flows  beneath  the  mists 
of  countries  and  nations.  Behind  them  the  night-wind 
had  laid  itself  to  rest  on  a  swelling,  rustling  bed  of  corn, 
inlaid  with  blue  corn-flowers  ;  and  before  them,  in  the 
valley,  lay  the  reaped  harvest  of  the  second  world,  pre- 
cious stones,  as  it  were,  in  their  coffin-settings,  which 
had  become  cold  and  heavy  by  death.*  And,  in  contrast 
to  the  sunflower  and  mote  in  the  sunbeam,  the  pious, 
humble  man  bowed  as  moonflower  towards  the  moon, 
and  played  in  its  cool  ray  as  a  moonbeam  mote,  and  felt 
that  beneath  the  starry  sky  nothing  was  great  but  our 
hopes. 

Natalie  leant  upon  Firmian's  hand,  to  assist  herself 
in  rising,  and  said,  "  I  am  now  able  to  go  home." 

Without  getting  up,  or  even  addressing  her,  he  held 
her  hand  fast,  looked  upon  the  dry  prickly  stalk  of  the 
old  rose-bud  she  had  given  him,  and  pressed  the  thorns 
into  his  fingers  unconsciously,  and  without  feeling  them. 
His  laden  bosom  heaved  with  deeper,  warmer  breath- 
*  Qualities  of  the  genuine  jewel. 


344    FLOWER,   FRUIT,   AND   THORN  PIECES. 

ings,  glowing  tears  hung  in  his  eyes,  and  the  moonshine 
trembled  before  them  like  a  falling  rain  of  light.  A 
whole  world  lay  upon  his  soul  and  upon  his  tongue, 
and  overwhelmed  both. 

"  Good  Firmian,"  said  Natalie,  "  what  do  you  want  ?  " 

He  turned  his  open  fixed  eyes  towards  her  gentle 
form,  and  pointed  down  upon  his  grave :  "  My  home 
there  below,  which  remains  too  long  empty  ;  for  the 
dream  of  life  is  dreamed  on  too  hard  a  bed." 

As  she  wept  much,  and  her  face,  suffused  with  an 
expression  of  heavenly  mildness,  came  too  near  him,  he 
became  confused,  and  continued,  with  the  bitterest  and 
most  heart-felt  emotion,  "  Are  not  all  my  dear  ones  gone, 
and  are  you  not  also  about  to  go  ?  Ah,  why  has  tortur- 
ing Fate  placed  the  waxen  image  of  an  angel  upon  all 
our  bosoms,*  and  therewith  lowered  us  into  the  cold 
grave  ?  Alas  !  the  soft  image  dissolves,  and  no  angel 
appears.  Yes,  indeed,  you  have  appeared  to  me  ;  but 
you  disappear,  and  time  will  crush  your  image  upon  my 
heart,  and  my  heart  too  ;  for  when  I  have  lost  you,  I 
shall  be  quite  alone.  But  farewell !  Once  at  least  I  shall 
die  in  earnest,  and  then  I  will  appear  to  you  again,  but 
not  as  I  did  to-day,  and  nowhere  but  in  eternity.  Then 
I  will  say  to  you,  '  O  Natalie,  I  loved  you  there  below 
with  infinite  sorrows  ;  repay  me  for  it  here  ! '  " 

She  was  about  to  answer,  but  her  voice  failed  her. 
She  raised  her  large  eyes,  filled  with  tears,  to  the  starry 
heavens,  and  attempted  to  rise,  but  her  friend  held  her, 
with  his  hands  bleeding  from  the  thorns,  and  said,  "  And 
can  you,  then,  leave  me,  Natalie  ?  " 

*  Waxen  images  of  angels  were  formerly  placed  in  the  grave  on 
the  breast  of  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


345 


Hereupon  she  rose  with  a  noble  effort,  looked  up 
towards  the  sky,  brushed  away  the  tears  which  over- 
flowed her  eyes,  and  her  soaring  soul  found  a  tongue. 
With  hands  folded  in  prayer,  she  said,  "  Thou  all-loving 
One !  I  have  lost  him,  and  have  found  him  again  ! 
Eternity  is  upon  earth  !  Make  him  happy  through 
me  !"  and  her  head  sunk  tenderly  and  languidly  upon 
his,  and  she  said,  "  We  will  remain  together." 

Firmian  stammered  out,  "  O  God,  thou  angel  !  In 
life  and  death  thou  shalt  remain  with  me." 

u  Forever,  Firmian,"  said  Natalie,  still  more  gently  ; 
and  the  sorrows  of  our  friend  were  over. 


THE  END. 


Cambridge  :  Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


